Jacob Hicks on The Art of the Follow-Up and Long-Term Success | RR296

Janice Porter: 00:00:02

Jay, hello, hello and welcome to this week's

Janice Porter: 00:00:05

episode of relationships rule. I'm really excited about my

Janice Porter: 00:00:09

guest today. His name is Jacob Hicks, and Jacob is in Iowa,

Janice Porter: 00:00:14

little ways away from where I am. He and I did? We meet

Janice Porter: 00:00:19

through somebody else. Now I don't remember or was it just on

Janice Porter: 00:00:23

LinkedIn, so I think it was just on LinkedIn, and not just but

Janice Porter: 00:00:27

yeah, it was on LinkedIn, because that's the place where I

Janice Porter: 00:00:30

meet a lot of people. And so Jacob and I have had a

Janice Porter: 00:00:33

conversation already. And actually, you know what I'm

Janice Porter: 00:00:37

going to ask you, Jacob, to share with my audience, what you

Janice Porter: 00:00:42

do. I'm going to not read anything. I'm going to have you

Janice Porter: 00:00:45

tell us what you do and what you're passionate about doing.

Jacob Hicks: 00:00:49

So I am a coach and a speaker. Kind of, broad

Jacob Hicks: 00:00:52

strokes. My main areas of focus are work life balance, and I

Jacob Hicks: 00:00:56

have a larger background in sales. But really, kind of,

Jacob Hicks: 00:00:59

really, what kind of gives my juices flowing is helping people

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:02

to get to where they want to go, whether that be, you know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:04

getting from, you know, $50,000 in sales to 100 to 500 to a

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:09

million, whatever that might look like, or just those folks

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:11

that are, maybe they've been in sales for a long time, and they

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:15

realized that pursuing, you know, that almighty dollar

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:18

hasn't given them everything that they thought that it would.

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:22

And I really like helping people, particularly on the

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:24

entrepreneurial side, establish like those sales systems where

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:27

there's a lot of the time, like those folks that have built a

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:30

business, they don't want to sell all the time. They want to

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:34

come across as pushy or overbearing. They just want

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:36

their business to do the business, whatever that might be

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:38

for them, but helping them establish those systems so they

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:41

can do what I call selling without selling or meaning that

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:43

they're staying in front of people, they're fighting as much

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:45

value as possible, so they're not coming across as pushover

Jacob Hicks: 00:01:48

bearing at all.

Janice Porter: 00:01:49

Thank you. A couple of things come to mind

Janice Porter: 00:01:52

with what you just said. So people who have been, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:01:56

slogging it out, and they're not making as much money as they

Janice Porter: 00:02:00

would like. Do you think a lot of the time, or in your

Janice Porter: 00:02:05

experience, would you say that it's because they're too focused

Janice Porter: 00:02:08

on the money and not focused on the people?

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:13

I think so I can tell you from from my personal

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:16

experience, like the way that I always say it is, in my 20s, I

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:20

was passionate about profit, like, if there was a job that I

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:23

could, you know, jump ship from whatever I was doing, and I was

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:26

able to increase my, you know, my monthly salary or whatever I

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:29

was probably going to be doing, I was probably going to try it.

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:32

I was at least going to go for it. But I realized, I really

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:35

believe that that money is a byproduct of excellence, that if

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:39

we are pursuing excellence, meaning, like, whatever that

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:41

might look like for you as an individually if, if we are

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:45

pursuing excellence, meaning that we are serving those people

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:48

around us that can be friends, family, and, of course, our

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:50

customers. And I believe that eventually the money will come.

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:54

And I also think that a lot of the times we don't, we don't

Jacob Hicks: 00:02:58

talk about enough, and we don't focus enough on our why? Like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:02

really, like, our purpose in life, like, what is the thing is

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:04

actually driving us forward? Like, money. Money is great, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:07

know, money, you know, Mike gets, gets us a lot of things.

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:10

It gives us base it, yes, absolutely, gives us, I mean, a

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:14

ton of freedom and a lot of options to do what we what we

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:17

want to do. But if we, if we don't understand our purpose.

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:21

Which can you know that can take a lifetime sometimes to really

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:23

figure out, well, we don't pursue our purpose and really

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:26

try to understand like, Hey, what is it that really brings me

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:29

joy? What is it that really fills my cup? I think that we're

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:32

really missing the boat.

Janice Porter: 00:03:34

Well, if you found that formula at your young

Janice Porter: 00:03:38

age by saying, kudos to you, right? So when do you know when

Janice Porter: 00:03:44

that Aha happened for you or what? Or was it somebody that

Janice Porter: 00:03:49

influenced you to think that way?

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:52

Probably, I suppose it's probably a little bit of of

Jacob Hicks: 00:03:55

both. Okay, um, like for me, I realized really early on in my

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:00

my my sales career, which I started sales 10 ish, whatever,

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:04

years ago now, in retail, selling suits for Men's

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:08

Warehouse. And I realized that, yeah, sure, the money was fun,

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:12

you know, like, that's all well and good, especially for a young

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:14

person, right? But I realized the thing that really filled my

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:18

cup, really brought me joy, was helping people navigate a

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:21

difficult situation, which at the time was, you know, a lot of

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:24

men, we don't know how to dress ourselves, particularly for more

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:27

formal occasions like a job interview or a wedding. So

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:30

helping people navigate through those sometimes murky waters was

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:34

was a lot of fun for me, and I've realized that broad

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:37

strokes, my purpose is to serve those around me, whether it be

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:42

uplifting them, providing strategies, you know, feedback,

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:46

having hard conversations, like whatever it is, I think that I

Jacob Hicks: 00:04:49

can do to help those around me, I will very likely do

Janice Porter: 00:04:52

so. Do you lean more towards that, what would be

Janice Porter: 00:04:55

called Life Coaching versus business coaching? Or it's just

Janice Porter: 00:04:59

sort. Of a combo that that happens because I asked that,

Janice Porter: 00:05:03

because, because you have to market to whomever. So how is it

Janice Porter: 00:05:08

that you're marketing yourself?

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:10

So it's really kind of a combination thereof. I

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:13

mean, usually when I work with folks, it kind of starts on the

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:16

at least, starts on the business side, okay, where, like, hey,

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:18

like, hey, I want to, like, I said, like, I said, like, I'm,

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:20

you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I've started this business. It's

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:23

going well, but I feel like our sales systems could be tighter.

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:26

Like, you know, how do we get these things figured out? And

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:29

then during the course of working together, we end up

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:32

digging into those, those bigger picture things. That means,

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:36

like, you know, hey, I love this business. I love what I've

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:38

built, but I've realized that I hardly ever spend time with my

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:41

kids. It's like figuring out how to how to really kind of bring

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:44

everything full circle. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:05:47

Okay, so in your bio, it says that you're known

Janice Porter: 00:05:50

for your engaging storytelling and actionable insights. Can you

Janice Porter: 00:05:55

give me one of those stories?

Jacob Hicks: 00:05:58

So my, my favorite story that I love to tell is,

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:03

well, it's around purpose and like your why and everything is

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:06

the story of Desmond Doss, are you familiar with Desmond at

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:10

all? No, so he, he was a Marine Corps medic back in World War

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:16

Two, okay? And the really unique thing about Desmond is that he

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:20

was what's called a conscientious objector, meaning

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:23

that he was against the war. And most folks that are considering

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:26

themselves conscientious objectors will either they

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:29

either won't fight at all they want to enter in the military,

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:32

refused to fight, or, like Desmond, they won't carry a gun.

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:35

So he became a medic because he felt like this need to serve.

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:38

Was that the movie that, yeah, yeah. There's a movie that came

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:41

out, yeah, 567, years

Janice Porter: 00:06:43

with Andrew Garfield, yes. Okay, I never saw

Janice Porter: 00:06:46

it, but I remember the story. Okay, go ahead. Yeah.

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:49

So he, he was fighting in the Pacific Theater

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:51

on Okinawa, which was an incredibly awful part of the

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:55

war. A lot of folks died there, and like the movie portrays, he

Jacob Hicks: 00:06:59

was fighting all what are they called, Hacksaw Ridge. That's

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:02

the name of the movie. Yes, exactly. So he and, you know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:06

his men, they had to climb up this ridge, which it was, it was

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:11

hand over hand. So they had to carry, like rope over rope,

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:14

where they're climbing up this ridge. And it wasn't short by

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:18

any means. It was about 400 feet up, and their main kick being

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:21

thrown off over and over and over again, because the Japanese

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:23

are really dug in on top of this ridge, which for me, that's

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:28

always so, so terrifying to think about. To climb up. It's

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:32

40 stories up to get up on top of this ridge, and then you're

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:35

fighting, which is terrifying. And then you're losing the war.

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:38

You're losing the fight, and you have to climb back down 40

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:41

stories to get away from from these, you know, Japanese

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:44

soldiers, but Desmond Doss he one night they, they got thrown

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:49

off, as they always did, and he refused to leave because he

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:53

could hear the men in his unit frying for help. They were they

Jacob Hicks: 00:07:57

were wounded. They couldn't, they couldn't get back down. And

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:00

the commanders very often would call in navy, Navy air strikes

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:06

top of this ridge to try to loosen up the defense a little

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:09

bit. And during the shelling, Desmond saved 75 men, wow,

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:15

individually and on his own. And every time he saved somebody,

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:20

his prayer was, Please, Lord help me. Let me get one more.

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:23

Please, Lord, let me get one more. And that really resonates

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:27

with me, because obviously, you know, I'm not fighting in a war,

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:30

but that's, that's, I mean, that's my prayer as well. It's

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:34

like, Please, Lord, let me help one more. How can I help one

Jacob Hicks: 00:08:36

more person today? Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:08:38

wow. That's great. That's interesting that I

Janice Porter: 00:08:40

knew as soon as you started telling the story, I'd heard

Janice Porter: 00:08:43

something about this person before, so that's interesting.

Janice Porter: 00:08:46

So do you work with men and women? Yes, I do, yep. Okay, and

Janice Porter: 00:08:55

I know one of the things that we talked about when we first spoke

Janice Porter: 00:08:59

was a topic that one of the topics that you do talk about

Janice Porter: 00:09:04

when you're speaking at different things is the art of

Janice Porter: 00:09:07

the follow up, how to build lasting client relationships.

Janice Porter: 00:09:10

And that, course, speaks to me big time, because I'm all about

Janice Porter: 00:09:14

that as well. So I'd love to know how you see building

Janice Porter: 00:09:22

lasting relationships, and how that, because you have to teach

Janice Porter: 00:09:26

you really, actually have to teach people to do that, I

Janice Porter: 00:09:28

believe, and how that, then, you know, brings the circle to the

Janice Porter: 00:09:34

more customers, more more more referrals, more business, more

Janice Porter: 00:09:39

money. And it goes around and around So, so

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:42

what I always tell folks, because particularly if

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:45

you're a newer salesperson, or if you're on, typically on the

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:48

entrepreneurial side of of sales, is that they they're

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:53

always worried about they're bothering people like, I mean, I

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:55

don't want to. I can call this guy you know twice last week. I

Jacob Hicks: 00:09:58

don't want to. I want to bug him. Yeah, and the truth is,

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:01

like, if you're if you're calling somebody or emailing

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:03

them, or you're trying to connect with somebody, and all

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:07

you're doing is saying, you know, hey, I've got this

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:08

product. Hey, I'm trying to sell you on stuff. Hey, do you want

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:11

to buy my stuff? Now that that can be pushy, that can be that

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:14

can be aggravating, but regardless of whatever it is

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:17

you're selling, if you're coming from a place of value, meaning

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:20

that, like, Whatever, whatever is you're selling, like, I feel

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:24

like good example is real estate, where, if you're, if

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:27

you're a real estate agent, and you, you met somebody at an open

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:30

house or a networking event, or whatever the case might be, and

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:33

you think that they might be a good fit for you, then you reach

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:37

back out to them, saying, you know, hey, based on our, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:39

know, conversation at the networking event the other day

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:41

seemed like you're open to might be looking to make a move.

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:45

Here's three or four things that I always like to tell folks when

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:48

they're thinking about about making a move, just get

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:50

something that will provide some value to them, and you want to

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:53

make sure you're doing that on a reasonably consistent basis,

Jacob Hicks: 00:10:56

meaning that you're not meeting them in a networking event and

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:01

you call them, you know, the next day, you maybe email them

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:03

the next week, and then you're, you're out of there most of the

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:07

time, at least. From the reports that I've I've read, the studies

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:10

that I've read, most business is earned on that ninth through

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:14

12th follow up, depending on what study you're reading. Yeah,

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:17

yeah. You need to make sure you're staying in front of

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:19

people so

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:20

or go ahead. Sorry, no, no, go ahead. Well,

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:23

I was just gonna say so. I mean, typically what I suggest to

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:26

folks is, is modeling it. Gary Keller is huge in the real

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:30

estate world, and I like some of his systems. Yeah, one that I

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:33

always suggest to folks is doing some variation of a 10 by 10,

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:36

meaning that you you meet somebody at networking event,

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:39

you get their contact information, and then over the

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:42

course of the next 10 weeks, you are reaching out to them 10

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:45

times. Now that doesn't mean that you're calling them every

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:47

single time, right? Yeah, a couple of times. You're emailing

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:50

them, maybe message them, texting them, you know, whatever

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:53

the case might be. And then if you're still not getting any

Jacob Hicks: 00:11:57

response, then you can put them on what he calls the 36 touch,

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:00

meaning that over 12 months, you will reach out to them 36 times.

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:04

Now, again, that's not 36 individual calls in his and in

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:07

that program, he recommends four four calls over the course of

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:12

that year, with different emails and texts and different things

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:15

in there, but doing some sort of variation that makes sure that

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:18

you're staying in front of people. Because if you're not

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:21

staying in front of people, then you're losing what we call mind

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:24

share, meaning that if you're again, if you're a real estate

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:27

agent, and you're not staying in contact with somebody, then

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:31

whenever, if and whenever they get to the point where they're

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:34

like, Yes, I do need to change house, then they're going to go

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:38

with whatever guy they saw on a park bench someplace, because

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:41

you didn't stay in contact with them, making sure that you're

Jacob Hicks: 00:12:43

doing that consistently and following up with value. I

Janice Porter: 00:12:46

love that story because, number one, I did some

Janice Porter: 00:12:49

training at Keller Williams, and I learned and read that book.

Janice Porter: 00:12:52

The one thing so, I mean, it's very distinct, for sure. Number

Janice Porter: 00:12:57

two, it reminded me of a story that I tell often, because I

Janice Porter: 00:13:06

like to put that piece in the mix of sending someone a card,

Janice Porter: 00:13:10

because that is a different mindset. It's a different

Janice Porter: 00:13:14

feeling. It's a tangible touch takes you from your head to your

Janice Porter: 00:13:17

heart, so you want to make sure that you get something physical

Janice Porter: 00:13:20

in there as well, in all of those touches. And I have a

Janice Porter: 00:13:24

friend who told me a story once that over a period of 15 years,

Janice Porter: 00:13:32

he bought and sold three houses for his family, family home, and

Janice Porter: 00:13:35

upgraded every time, and used a different realtor every time,

Janice Porter: 00:13:40

because nobody stayed in touch. And that's just such a perfect

Janice Porter: 00:13:43

example of that may not be the park bench, but it may certainly

Janice Porter: 00:13:46

be the one who just showed up. And I remember talking to a

Janice Porter: 00:13:49

another realtor that I met on LinkedIn quite a while ago, and

Janice Porter: 00:13:54

he's he was somebody who actually was around, I think he

Janice Porter: 00:13:57

was involved in the startup of REMAX, like that. So that's and

Janice Porter: 00:14:02

he said to me, he was an old guy like to talk, you know, and tell

Janice Porter: 00:14:06

his stories, and it was interesting. And I remember him

Janice Porter: 00:14:09

saying to me, I always want to be the number two, the number

Janice Porter: 00:14:12

their number two, because number one forgets about them, like you

Janice Porter: 00:14:16

said, they drop off. And he said, I want to be there and be

Janice Porter: 00:14:19

their number two. So there's so many stories in that when it

Janice Porter: 00:14:23

comes to selling and and the importance of follow up and of

Janice Porter: 00:14:29

staying connected to people, I think that, I think that it's,

Janice Porter: 00:14:35

it's comes back again, though, to maybe your why. But also, I

Janice Porter: 00:14:43

think it comes back to how hungry you are, and how you let

Janice Porter: 00:14:46

that get in the way of the real, authentic piece, because you are

Janice Porter: 00:14:54

so hungry, and that's a very hard thing to do, right? Because

Janice Porter: 00:14:58

then when you're reaching out, it's not. Authentic, and it's

Janice Porter: 00:15:01

not showing that you're carrying that you're not really caring

Janice Porter: 00:15:03

about them, you just want another sale. It just doesn't

Janice Porter: 00:15:06

work, right?

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:07

I mean, I mean, 100% I think, I think it

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:10

honestly. I think you hit the nail on the head there. It's

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:13

really when you're in sales, if you're a good salesperson, and

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:17

you're coming from a good place, which I always believe that a

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:20

good salesperson will be consultative, meaning that they

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:22

might present you a new product, but they will tell you like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:25

Hey, I don't think you should buy this because of, you know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:27

X, Y and Z, but really, when I think you're absolutely right,

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:31

the 100 can really get in the way. Because it turns from, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:35

know, Jacob is reaching out to Janice because they like, he

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:37

connected with her at some networking event, and he wants

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:40

to help her as much as he can. And it turns from from helping

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:43

Janice to helping Jacob, right? And whenever the salesperson is

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:47

just trying to help themselves, that's when things can, yeah,

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:50

lose their authenticity and their, I mean, genuine

Jacob Hicks: 00:15:52

connection.

Janice Porter: 00:15:53

Well, it's probably authentic, but it's not

Janice Porter: 00:15:55

what we want it to be, right? But let's be clear. Oh, I had

Janice Porter: 00:16:01

the statement I wanted to say, um, oh, yes, let's, let's be

Janice Porter: 00:16:06

really clear here. We're all in sales. We really are. And so I

Janice Porter: 00:16:10

think you said something about, or I read somewhere, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:16:15

that's not about selling. It is about selling, but it's about

Janice Porter: 00:16:19

doing it, like you said, in a consultative way, and it's about

Janice Porter: 00:16:22

showing people you care and about being a good listener, so

Janice Porter: 00:16:26

that you're able to bring you know the right thing to the

Janice Porter: 00:16:30

right person, right? But follow up is huge, right? Follow up is,

Janice Porter: 00:16:36

is, is the hardest thing to do, and yet, I think you said it

Janice Porter: 00:16:43

also earlier. It's like, the more people you talk to, the

Janice Porter: 00:16:50

easier it gets to make the sale, right? And so I don't know it's

Janice Porter: 00:16:56

a vicious cycle. So when you're talking about, see, I think

Janice Porter: 00:16:59

there's a real interesting thing here, you're talking about the

Janice Porter: 00:17:01

caring about people and about wanting them to succeed and and

Janice Porter: 00:17:06

talking about work life balance. And I don't believe in that

Janice Porter: 00:17:09

myself. But anyway, it's, you know, I mean, if you love what

Janice Porter: 00:17:12

you do, you kind of make it in my estimation. But there are

Janice Porter: 00:17:15

people that get stuck workaholic versus, you know, the one who

Janice Porter: 00:17:19

isn't inspired to do anything and so on, but, but you're not,

Janice Porter: 00:17:25

but you also talked about systems. So, yeah, how do you

Janice Porter: 00:17:28

how that's two sides of the brain, and I'm not very good at

Janice Porter: 00:17:32

the system side of the brain, so talk to me about how you bring

Janice Porter: 00:17:35

that in and and work with people that like me, who I just want to

Janice Porter: 00:17:39

talk to people, yeah. So, I mean,

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:41

it's so interesting that you just say that. I mean,

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:44

because a lot of folks are like, you're saying like you, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:46

built your business a certain way, and you want the business

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:48

to do the business right, yeah. And the systems, they help you,

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:51

they can help support you in that endeavor, but they can

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:55

also, if you don't save your systems, because you The

Jacob Hicks: 00:17:58

interesting thing about systems is that either you have set up a

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:02

system intentionally to support you in what you are trying to

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:05

do, or you haven't set up a system intentionally, but you

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:08

have a system anyway, and it doesn't support you actually

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:10

takes away from it, meaning like, follow up, for example,

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:13

since we've been talking about it, right, follow up can be very

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:15

systematized, meaning that I get a notification or a task, You

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:19

know, Monday morning to follow up with whomever. Or it can be

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:23

like, Oh, I just got to try to remember to call her. Both are

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:26

systems, but one will work better than the other. The two

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:30

systems that I always recommend to folks, if we're talking about

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:32

sales and follow up, is having your CRM in a really, really

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:38

strong place, meaning that you have your good notes in there.

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:41

You have all your contact information, setting up it such

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:44

a way that it will automate things as much as possible,

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:47

meaning that sometimes, well, a lot of the time, like a lot of

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:50

the connections and the contacts we make, they might be

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:53

automated, meaning automatically, on Monday, this

Jacob Hicks: 00:18:55

email will go out to Janice, and she'll get it right. But setting

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:00

up those tasks in such a way that when you first meet

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:03

somebody, you're still reaching out to them in a very

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:05

personalized way. So setting up your your CRM to automate things

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:09

and try to take that off of your plate, I think, is really,

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:12

really critical. And then setting up your task management,

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:15

which I think are two separate things in such a way to make

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:18

sure that all of the little things that are so easy to fall

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:21

through the cracks as we get crazy and as a whirlwind of our

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:24

day kind of goes wild to make sure those small tasks aren't

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:27

falling through the cracks is is crucial.

Janice Porter: 00:19:31

So give me an example of your day. So do you

Janice Porter: 00:19:37

have everything systemized

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:42

I've done you up. So I've done my absolute best.

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:44

I'll tell I mean, this is like, it's a journey, not a

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:47

destination, right? Of course. I mean, the way that I have my day

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:50

set up is I use a software called Todoist. I'm not sure if

Jacob Hicks: 00:19:56

you're familiar with that. It's to do list. List without the L,

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:01

yeah, but it's a it's a software you can get on your computer and

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:03

on your smartphone. That's why I'm such a huge fan of it. But

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:06

the reason I like that so much for my task management is that I

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:10

can set up an individual task like, Hey, I met Janice at, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:14

know, the event yesterday. I want to call her tomorrow so I

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:16

can go type that in really quick, get my task set up for

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:18

tomorrow. But then I can also set up things in such a way

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:22

where, let's say, you know, you and I have been connecting for a

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:26

while. Things have been going well, but you're just not in a

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:28

place to buy quite yet. So I'm going to put you on that longer

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:30

term, that longer cycle, but still make sure I'm following up

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:33

with you. So I can set up an Excel where I will reach out to

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:40

you every single you know, every third Thursday or every quarter

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:45

or whatever kind of makes sense. And the reason I like that so

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:49

the to do is so much for my task management is because it works

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:52

for me professionally and it works for me personally. So like

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:55

when I first started working with it, I was trying to work on

Jacob Hicks: 00:20:58

my finances, just trying to get a little more financially

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:00

literate. So every month, and still to this day, every month,

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:04

on the first of the month, I have a task to review my

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:06

finances to make sure that things are going well and really

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:11

honestly, like that, that and my calendar are kind of my my

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:14

backbone. I do. I'm a big fan of time blocking, too. Oh, okay,

Janice Porter: 00:21:19

I like that. I should be, but I'm not as good

Janice Porter: 00:21:22

about it as I I kind of do have a routine. I think more than

Janice Porter: 00:21:27

anything, I can get sidetracked so easily. I'm such a squirrel,

Janice Porter: 00:21:30

it's terrible. The older I've gotten, the worse it's

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:33

become. Well, and I'll tell you one of my favorite

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:35

strategies with time blocking, because you're not alone. Like

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:38

some people can do it for like, 24 hours a day. I know exactly

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:41

what I'm doing when right? And some, like most of us, relax,

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:44

okay, realize a little bit my favorite, my favorite time

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:48

blocking strategy, is what I call chaos time, yes, meaning

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:52

that when you know your day is going well, but then you know

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:56

somebody calls and there's a fire, their hair's on fire, and

Jacob Hicks: 00:21:58

you got to deal with it right now. So I actually time block in

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:02

a half an hour. Yeah, I have chaos time every single day.

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:06

Yeah, that way when, when something goes crazy and I have

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:09

to deal with it right then and there. The rest of my day isn't

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:11

thrown off. And I'm not looking for a whole an extra day by the

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:14

time the end of the week

Janice Porter: 00:22:15

it's here. That's fun. Now, are you a family man?

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:18

I mean, I am a family man, but I don't have

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:20

any. I don't have wife or kids or anything. Sorry. Oh,

Janice Porter: 00:22:22

no. Oh, okay, I You're still single guy who,

Janice Porter: 00:22:25

okay, so you only have you to look after in that respect. And

Janice Porter: 00:22:28

my dog, Harley, yep. And your dog, Harley, what kind of dog?

Janice Porter: 00:22:31

Yeah,

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:32

well, he's a rescue but, and he's a pretty big boy.

Jacob Hicks: 00:22:34

I think my best guess is that he's a lab Mastiff mix. Oh, wow.

Janice Porter: 00:22:38

Okay. Um, okay, so, does that help you with work

Janice Porter: 00:22:48

life balance only having you and your dog to look after? Or do

Janice Porter: 00:22:53

you see that being easy if you, you know, get into a

Janice Porter: 00:22:56

relationship with somebody and have somebody else's schedule to

Janice Porter: 00:23:00

deal with as well. So,

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:02

I mean, I think it's, I think it's both,

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:05

honestly, because when we're talking about, like, work life

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:08

balance, I think, I think it's seasonal. I think where, like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:12

for me, for right now, so I'm, I'm working on myself, I'm

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:15

working in my business and everything. So I think I'm in a

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:17

season of grinding, right where it's okay that I'm by myself,

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:21

because I can, I can work 12 or whatever hours a day. I can get

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:24

a lot of things done, but that isn't really sustainable over a

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:29

lifetime. So I mean finding those things that work and and

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:32

really, when I say work life balance, what I mean is building

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:36

a life that you want. So, like, right now I'm building my

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:39

business, which is the like life that I want is I want to work

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:41

hard and I want to build things up and get things going, but

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:45

then in 10 years, that's going to look much different. So

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:47

really figuring out what those things are and what you want is

Jacob Hicks: 00:23:49

critical.

Janice Porter: 00:23:50

I love it. You've got a plan. I like that. So you

Janice Porter: 00:23:54

mentioned to me earlier that you are a big reader. Do you read

Janice Porter: 00:23:59

real books, or do you read audio books? Or do you read Kindle

Janice Porter: 00:24:03

books?

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:04

I do. I do a little bit everything. What are you

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:08

reading right now? Oh, gosh, right. So right now, I'm big fan

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:13

of fantasy books. That's kind of my pleasure reading. Yeah. So I

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:17

right now I'm reading the poppy wars, and then I'm also reading

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:22

Gary Vaynerchuk Stu book, oh, gosh, I'm gonna forget what does

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:26

it

Janice Porter: 00:24:26

have a swear word in it? No, no. It's

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:30

not in the title, at least, yeah, but it's Gosh,

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:33

I'll forget what it's called now, but it's all about social

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:35

media marketing and just how to like craft social media so that

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:39

it's accurately working really well for you. And then one that

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:44

I'm really, really enjoying for business is beyond

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:47

entrepreneurship, like that. One's been actual, yeah, they

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:51

didn't just, they just came out with, like, the, you know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:24:55

second edition of it. Oh gosh, I can't remember. Who wrote it?

Janice Porter: 00:25:00

Now, I'll write it down. Yeah, I can either

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:04

remember the author's name or the book's

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:06

name, but never,

Janice Porter: 00:25:07

not both. Okay, fair enough. Okay, and you may

Janice Porter: 00:25:14

have seen this on the sheet I sent you, but I thought it might

Janice Porter: 00:25:17

be fun to ask you this, because I don't ask everybody, but I do

Janice Porter: 00:25:20

ask some people. So my favorite word is curiosity. And I would

Janice Porter: 00:25:25

love to know if you think curiosity is innate or learned.

Janice Porter: 00:25:31

And then part two is, what are you most curious about these

Janice Porter: 00:25:34

days?

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:36

Oh, man, bringing the man bringing some tough

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:38

questions. I think, I think it's a little bit of both, whether

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:44

it's innate or learned. I think it's, it's something that we all

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:47

start being very curious as as we're young. We have, you know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:50

always asking, why, like, why, why? Why? Why, right? But I

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:53

think it's something that can be very easily stifled or

Jacob Hicks: 00:25:56

cultivated, and I think that can be both external and internal.

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:00

And I'm a really big believer that, like the strategy of

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:03

coming from Curiosity, whether it be in sales and business and

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:07

personal relationships and whatever we're talking about,

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:10

when you come from curiosity and ask really authentic, genuine

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:13

questions, I think that can get us a really, really a long way

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:17

in what we're doing, as far as what I'm curious about right

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:20

now. Oh, gosh, so many things really right now, I'm learning a

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:29

ton about podcasting like myself, yeah, meeting with folks

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:33

like yourself as I get ready to launch launch my own but just

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:37

figuring out ways to the better myself and figuring out, like

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:42

the things that I don't know is most I've been curious about

Jacob Hicks: 00:26:46

that for a long time, so

Janice Porter: 00:26:47

well, and I would imagine you would experience

Janice Porter: 00:26:50

this as I do it, when I'm doing LinkedIn training with people.

Janice Porter: 00:26:54

And that is, and I sort of alluded to this earlier, is

Janice Porter: 00:27:01

whether it's innate or learned, having that that, I don't even

Janice Porter: 00:27:09

know what you call it, but having the tool of curiosity, or

Janice Porter: 00:27:12

the the gem, I think, is so important when you're

Janice Porter: 00:27:17

networking, when You're selling, because you have to be curious,

Janice Porter: 00:27:22

to ask questions, to get people to talk. And it is an art. And

Janice Porter: 00:27:27

so I notice when I'm teaching people how to get into the

Janice Porter: 00:27:31

mailboxes, how to actually have a message conversation on

Janice Porter: 00:27:36

LinkedIn with somebody and be able to draw them off LinkedIn

Janice Porter: 00:27:39

to want to speak to you that takes some doing sometimes and

Janice Porter: 00:27:44

and some people don't know what to say. They don't know how to

Janice Porter: 00:27:48

do it at all. And I would imagine you have clients that

Janice Porter: 00:27:51

say to you, Well, what do I say in that email? Or how do I do

Janice Porter: 00:27:54

you run across that too? I

Jacob Hicks: 00:27:56

mean, 100% I mean, we're talking about sales,

Jacob Hicks: 00:27:58

right? So like, oh, I don't, I don't want to write a script,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:00

right? So I don't want, I want to be a robot. I don't know,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:03

gosh, I don't, I just don't know what to say. And I feel like

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:06

it's this, this philosophy, or this, I don't know, this

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:10

phenomenon, or something that I'm I'm kind of coming across

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:12

where it's like, we're talking about humanity, right? So, like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:16

it's just one person talking to another person, right? So it's

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:18

like, let's say you met this person at a coffee shop. Like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:21

what would you want to say to them? Yeah? Like, like, like,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:24

hey, like, what are the basics? Like, what do you do? All of

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:26

that kind of stuff, right? So especially with LinkedIn,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:30

because, I mean, it's almost like Facebook, right? So it's

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:32

because it's much easier to find information, yeah, so, like, you

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:36

can do a quick glance and see what it is that they're doing

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:40

and what they've been doing, yeah, little

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:43

questions, yeah, so just dig a little bit Exactly,

Janice Porter: 00:28:46

yeah. But be curious enough to do that,

Janice Porter: 00:28:49

right? Be curious enough to do that and

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:52

be authentic, because when we when we ask,

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:53

when we ask a question, we get an answer that can always lead

Jacob Hicks: 00:28:57

to another, like two or three questions. Always there was

Jacob Hicks: 00:29:01

something,

Janice Porter: 00:29:01

okay, so, right? I Yeah. So just as an example,

Janice Porter: 00:29:07

it just came back to me as an example. When we first talked,

Janice Porter: 00:29:11

and I knew that you were from Iowa, I was trying to find some

Janice Porter: 00:29:14

common ground or some rapport, right? My first thought was

Janice Porter: 00:29:18

basketball because of Caitlin Clark. And for those who don't

Janice Porter: 00:29:22

know, she sort of changed the face of women's basketball last

Janice Porter: 00:29:25

year by overnight a little bit. Yeah, right. And you said to me,

Janice Porter: 00:29:30

yes, you know who she is, and whatever, but you're more of a

Janice Porter: 00:29:32

football fan and and that's great. So that gives me a sense

Janice Porter: 00:29:36

of, you know, something off book to talk to you about, so to

Janice Porter: 00:29:41

speak, yeah, to try to get some rapport. So I don't know how did

Janice Porter: 00:29:46

I but I don't follow college football. Did Iowa do anything

Janice Porter: 00:29:49

this year? Are they? No. I

Jacob Hicks: 00:29:51

mean, what I always tell people is, we're not, we're

Jacob Hicks: 00:29:54

not going to the national championship, but we're usually

Jacob Hicks: 00:29:58

just a, you know, a few games over. 500 so we're we've been

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:02

steady. We've been pretty steady for the last 40 years, since

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:05

Troy fairness took over. But subtacular,

Janice Porter: 00:30:08

yeah, so it just an example. I was just playing

Janice Porter: 00:30:10

with you for that. So last couple of last questions. First

Janice Porter: 00:30:15

of all, I know that you have a goal for 2025 and maybe you

Janice Porter: 00:30:20

could share that with my audience, in case there's

Janice Porter: 00:30:22

someone out there that liked what they heard, and would love

Janice Porter: 00:30:25

to have you come speak to their group, however, and so Tell

Janice Porter: 00:30:28

them. Tell my audience what your what your goal is. It's big,

Janice Porter: 00:30:31

yeah.

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:32

So my big goal for for Yeah, 2025, is, I want to

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:36

come keynote, speak for 10 universities, 10 professional

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:40

organizations, and work with 30 individuals, one on one. I know

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:44

that's, I mean, a pretty, you know, big hairy ashes goal, but

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:47

I mean, why not set them big? Right? Absolutely. Anybody's

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:51

curious about working with me, either as a speaker or as an

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:53

individual, they can definitely find me on on my website. Jacob

Jacob Hicks: 00:30:57

picks, Coach com.

Janice Porter: 00:30:58

Say that again, Jacob. Jacob Hicks, coach.com

Janice Porter: 00:31:00

coach.com say it slowly because you said it so fast the first

Janice Porter: 00:31:04

time. Okay? Jacob Hicks, coach.com and that'll be in the

Janice Porter: 00:31:08

show notes as well. And one last thing, what message would you

Janice Porter: 00:31:13

like to leave with my audience around the work that you do, or

Janice Porter: 00:31:19

any advice for you know, business owners, entrepreneurs,

Janice Porter: 00:31:22

sales, professionals,

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:24

the advice that I generally give kind of broad

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:27

strokes, is to experiment, like try, try some things out, and be

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:31

willing to get outside your comfort zone. And that doesn't

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:33

mean that you don't need to go and climb a mountain tomorrow,

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:36

but maybe that means that you, you know, just try some things

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:38

out. Maybe read a book, maybe you Google some things, and you

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:41

know, you reach out to somebody on LinkedIn that you think might

Jacob Hicks: 00:31:44

be interesting and see if they can sit down for

Janice Porter: 00:31:47

coffee. Sounds good? Thank you. Thank you so

Janice Porter: 00:31:49

much for being here today, and thank you to my audience. As

Janice Porter: 00:31:54

always, I appreciate you, and remember to stay connected and

Janice Porter: 00:31:58

be remembered.

Jacob Hicks: 00:32:00

Yeah, thank you.

Unknown: 00:32:01

Applause.