• 49:39
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
linkedin, people, damon, work, book, talk, platform, started, content, engage, connections, ideal client, learned, video, business, winning, john, connect, good, definition
SPEAKERS
John D. Hanson, Damon Pistulka
Damon Pistulka 00:02
All right, everyone, welcome once again, the faces of business. I am your host, Damon pistulka, and I’m excited for our guest today, because I have John D Hanson with us today, we are going to be talking about leveraging LinkedIn to drive B to B business sales. John, thanks for being here today, and
John D. Hanson 00:24
I appreciate that. And thank you for pronouncing your name again, because I’ve been on such a first name basis with you, Damon, that if somebody asked me, I would be like a telemarketer. I’d be fumbling and stumbling through it. So thank you for also getting that clear in my head, so I’ve got that down. I appreciate you making time for me.
Damon Pistulka 00:41
No, no worries there, John. I have had to pronounce that a few times in my life, so
John D. Hanson 00:48
mine no problem. Telemarketers get right through. How is that? Right? Yeah, yeah.
Damon Pistulka 00:53
Well, John, this it’s great to have you today, and like we said, we’re gonna be talking about leveraging LinkedIn to drive B to B sales. So always like to start the show off with learning more about you, the person behind what’s going on. So John, tell us your background.
John D. Hanson 01:09
Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, not only do I believe in LinkedIn, but it would save people a lot of time if they did actually go to my LinkedIn, because I have a very diverse background and that I see that as a strength. It used to be a couple generations ago, like, you know, jack of all trades, master of none. But I have found that the diversity of my background has been a tremendous advantage in no matter what role I’ve been in, whether it’s leadership or management. So it takes a quite an interesting, storied, winding path between ministry, the military, trucking is in there, manufacturing, sales, finance. I think if I had to pull kind of the core things about who I’ve become because of I’ll say ministry was one, and that was something where lay opportunity. I started off in the choir, of all places, and it just led to eight years of being in leadership role in ministry in Northern Kentucky. That was one. Number two would be the military, and that I started in later. I started in. I joined at 32 years old, wow. I got downsized, and I was like, I had looked at the Ohio Army National Guard a year before, and I thought, I want college degrees paid for. I already had an Associates in accounting, but I hated accounting. I was good at it. I hated it, so I wanted to get a degree in things that I loved, business and history. And I thought this is a way I can do that and get some incredible leadership experience. And did, had eight years, joined, got promoted four times in six years, and was offered a fifth promotion to stay in. But at that point, I had more things going on on the home front, but included a tour to Iraq in 10 to 11, and incredible experiences in leadership and perspective, you know, on what a tough day looks like, because I came back to a fortune 10 role after that deployment in early 2012 and I had a really good measure, Damon, of what a bad day at in Iraq felt like compared to a bad day in the office. So I think it was helpful to have that perspective. And then on the corporate side of things, I’ve had tremendous experiences in B to B, whether it be in sales for industrial automation, love that field was in that for four years, or in a current role that I’m in in fire, life safety and security integration with a global, privately owned company. So storage background, but LinkedIn is one of the threads in my corporate that I should have started sooner than I did. But when I started in 16, when I got into B to B sales, I I was hooked and never looked back. It’s my favorite platform, and it has led to so many incredible opportunities, relationships, conversations and connections around the
Damon Pistulka 03:57
world. So you said, you said, you started your LinkedIn journey in 2016 so is that when you first created your account and got on LinkedIn? Yep, yeah,
John D. Hanson 04:07
I I am highly self motivated Damon, meaning that I’m competitive, but especially with myself, not so much with others, yeah, I asked them when I got hired into this role, I had never done B to B sales, yeah, I’d never sold industrial automation before, but was fascinated with the field, and had some manufacturing background. And I think that’s why they looked at me seriously. But I self motivated. I asked them, you know, what’s the best my territory’s ever done? Here in western Columbus, Ohio, they gave me a number, and I’m like, I gotta beat that number. So first full year with them, I did. I beat it by 30% having never done it before, but it was because I like to do things smarter and harder. I don’t just hustle and grind. I really like to have a plan behind when I’m hustling and grinding. And I thought I gotta leverage all the tools available to me to beat this number because I don’t have experience number two. I’m new to B to B sales, and I don’t have a natural selling ability. What I do have is a consultative solution focused through relationship selling. I’ve always exceeded that even in B to C sales. So I thought I’ve got to leverage every tool available to me to break this record. And LinkedIn was, for sure, one of the key components of that, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 05:22
yeah. Well, that’s great. That’s great to to hear. I mean, because you’ve got, what is it? 29,000 or so connections, slash followers, right now, that’s that’s awesome. And so what are some of the the things that once you got on that just seemed very foreign to you.
John D. Hanson 05:45
Oh, so many lessons learned at the beginning. Damon of like, who to connect with and who not to connect with and how to connect of, you know, in sales right there, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 05:55
yeah, connect with, how to connect with. I mean, what? What were some of the lessons learned there? Yeah.
John D. Hanson 05:59
So I would initially starting off, you kind of have to connect with anybody, yeah, so it seemed so I ended up connecting with anybody that would connect with me that was anywhere in my geographical area of of Central Ohio, right? But that didn’t mean that they were good connections. I was just kind of figuring out the platform. But if I had to give someone All right, you want to start off from ground zero, you have, yeah, absolutely no connections. Where would you start? And at the same time Damon, I was learning how to network in person. I hadn’t had to do that before. Oh, my corporate role, everything came to me. I was not in a business development role. It was a support role, and we had more than enough on our plates. I didn’t need to ask for more. Everything came to me. So I didn’t need to go get it. Well, when I now needed to go get it, I had to learn how to network in person. I had to learn how to network online. I had to learn all those things about who do you spend your time with? Who do you connect with? So having those lessons learned then I then applied them to the online space as I was learning it in the in person space, it’s better to connect with somebody who knows you, even if they’re not in the same industry, than someone who doesn’t. It’s better to connect with a center of influence who is happy to connect with you, whether they’re in your same industry or not. And you grow your connections. It’s better to have 501 quality connections than 10,000 of crap. It really is. The number is not as important as the quality of the connections. And more importantly, if you’re going to be on LinkedIn, how active those people are themselves. If I connect with one person, it has 10,000 connections. Imagine all the second degree connections I have access to. If I connect to somebody that has 238 they’re not going to have a whole lot of connections. Yeah. So I want somebody that’s got a lot and I want somebody that’s active on the platform. Doesn’t matter if I connect to somebody that has 1000 connections, but they never post, they never engage, they’re not active on the platform. So I just kind of learned those things of who’s an ideal connection. Just because somebody has a lot of connections doesn’t mean they’re active on the platform. And then I’d have some people that were active on the platform that I would rather connect with, that weren’t in my industry because they’re using the platform. And that’s just some things that I learned through networking in person that I applied to how I networked on LinkedIn. Very
Damon Pistulka 08:24
cool, very cool. So, most interesting person that you’ve met on LinkedIn? Oh,
John D. Hanson 08:34
that’s a good question. Okay, most interesting person that I met on LinkedIn was through this. This this is going to be one of my tips. Okay, people think that those automated suggestions about the messages you send for Happy Birthday are overrated and just cluttering people’s inboxes, but it was through a happy birthday message because I do more with it than just happy birthday. I start off with that. I send a happy birthday message to every person that is suggested, and it makes it easy for you. LinkedIn says, here’s this person’s birthday. I sent it to a business coach in Switzerland. I liked his profile. I was connected with him. Send a happy birthday request. It started a conversation. A few introductions later, I’m introduced. It into David Meltzer circles. Oh, wow. Into his private coaching circles. Had access to being coached by David Meltzer. On top of that, it gets better. I got invited to a VIP gathering event in Chicago through David Meltzer circles. I go there, and then afterwards, as a VIP dinner, where be a little bit extra, and then you get time with I ended up being sat at the table and having a two hour conversation with Marshall Faulk, the retired running back from the Indianapolis coal I have pages of notes from talking with him, and that came from a conversation a happy birthday message to a business coach in Switzerland.
Damon Pistulka 09:57
Oh, that’s a great example. Well, that’s a great example, because it is really amazing how, by building those relationships, what you can do using LinkedIn to start the relationship, using the video tools that we have now and then, in person.
John D. Hanson 10:16
Yes, yeah, and you talked about video. Video on LinkedIn is digested. Listen to this. If you’re taking notes 20 times more than any other kind of content, you’re like, Yeah, John, but I don’t have a good camera, or I don’t have the right setup. Listen, if it looks like a commercial, it feels like a commercial, so the polished ones in studio with the perfect lighting and the perfect cameras. If it feels like a TV show or commercial, that’s how it’s coming across. Now I it shouldn’t be Blair Witch Project where it’s shaky and black and white. You know, that’s distracting and crappy. Yeah, nice happy medium in there, where people would rather although I’ve got a friend of mine, he does video marketing. He’s up in Cleveland, and he’s had some shaky it didn’t look great. He had some business owners post video just in front of their business, talking about their business that drove more business than paid advertising did. Why? Because the customers got to see and hear the people, yeah, or they did business with them. Video is so powerful if you haven’t created it yet and posted it, LinkedIn wants eyeballs, and if 20 times more eyeballs are going to be on video, you need to be producing video, and that’s why live streams is an excellent way to do it like you’re doing. Damon,
Damon Pistulka 11:26
yeah, you know the live streaming has been a huge, huge benefit in our business. And really the business owners that I know are business marketing people that are using live stream, because just like you said, we can share engaging content today that gives people information they can use. You were just talking about who to connect with, how to connect with. You’re talking about the half day Happy birthday message, and how that’s beneficial, you know? So these are, these are great ways, I believe, as well, to that LinkedIn can really help you start to create connections community and really engage with other people that you want to on LinkedIn, yes,
John D. Hanson 12:06
830 million users worldwide. Now I know not every single one of those, not near every single one of those is active, but there are 200 million users in the US alone, even if half of those are active, even if just a quarter of those are active. It’s 500 500,000 if it’s 200 million, then it’s 50 million people who are active. Yes, 50 million. I guarantee there’s some people that you want to connect with who are active on LinkedIn that that you can get either connections that could lead to business or collaboration, or just to have these people in your network. I guarantee your business will benefit from the people who are on LinkedIn, let alone the ones who are active on it.
Damon Pistulka 12:47
Yes, yes, I’m writing a couple notes here because you’re saying a lot of good stuff. So as you look, you know
12:55
the
Damon Pistulka 12:59
LinkedIn, the benefits for LinkedIn, let’s talk a little bit about someone that is, is in the B to B space, selling things that are talking about larger ticket items, longer cycle, yeah, bigger dollars, multi year kind of things, Yep. Now that kind of person that’s that’s in there in a business development or a sales role, what are some of the things that they want to really start with? I mean, let’s, let’s start at the basic level. Let’s start at their profile.
John D. Hanson 13:33
Yes, I’m so glad you said that, because before you get to profile, there’s one step before that. Let’s do that, yeah, before you do the work on the profile. So I have a process that does this, but I’ll give kind of the outline before you start working on your on optimizing your profile. You want to identify who is your ideal client. Who is it? Because if you don’t know who it is, you’ll go to all this work of making a really shiny, attractive, interesting profile that’s appealing to everyone, and then also a attractive to no one. You’re really trying to what I call it’s going to be a book next year. Turn up the magnet. The more clarity you get. On strong clarity, the more polarizing it’s going to be and not I don’t mean that to be offensive. What I mean by polarizing is clarity. You want to be so clear on who your ideal clients are that you want to be tuning your your optimization of your profile to those ideal clients. If you don’t know who those are, then you’ll have a really attractive profile, just like you have a really attractive website that doesn’t isn’t really pointed at the people you ideally want to work with. Would you turn down business that came to you that was a good fit, that wasn’t ideal? No, but your but your outbound efforts need to be pointing specifically at your ideal prospects and clients, then build your profile around that other. Wise, it’s not going to get the results you’re after. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 15:02
that’s for sure. That’s for sure. And I want to kaizara here put a comment in they said, Said, to own a video marketing company, it’s important to be authentic and not overproduce your customers content. So Andrew, it is, it is. And I’ve got, I’ve got a client, long term client of mine first started working with them on their business and, and I’m not, I don’t do marketing. I mean, that’s my deal. My deal is business stuff and, but I know enough about marketing to be dangerous. And I said, Well, just, they just had gone through the whole process of producing this video, and it was literally five figure video. It was lots of lots of time, lots of people, lots of editing, all this stuff. And I just about made me want to throw up, because at the end of the day, it came out with a nice, nice video and everything. But I can tell you today that they’re doing stuff on an iPhone in in 10 minutes that’s getting a more more traction than that ever did. Yes.
John D. Hanson 16:10
Authentic Tony Robbins said that the thing that used to sell the golden ticket was NLP, neuro linguistic programming, where you mentally and emotionally manipulate people to buy what you want them to buy is that’s no longer the golden ticket. Authenticity is people can smell that a mile away, that you know what authenticity feels like. And if your videos that you’re creating are authentic, like you’re having a conversation with somebody across the across the table from you, that’s going to resonate more than the expensive, highly polished, highly produced, highly edited with a with the sounds and all that. If they’re not getting an idea of who you are before they engage with you, how are they going to be able to trust you? And trust is the number one social currency nowadays. Authenticity leads to trust. Flash and commercial makes for a funny punch line, but I don’t have Progressive Insurance, even though I know their tagline is that because I’m anti progressive, no, because I found a quality local insurance provider, agency that takes care of what I need. Yes, that’s why we do businesses with people we trust. That is
Damon Pistulka 17:14
a great, great example. So now, as we’re looking at leveraging LinkedIn, you’re helping business owners. What are some of the things that you’re really passionate about in business right now that are happening in the in the world, in the industry that’s really got you going in business? Yeah,
John D. Hanson 17:34
we already talked about authenticity. We already talked about, I call it the customer discovery process, and I do this before I do any kind of coaching or leveraging LinkedIn, whatever tool it is, I always start with this, because the customer discovery process is we’re really trying to identify several things. Number one is, and I turned it into a book, fifth dimensional customer experience, but it’s what I do as the foundation of anything that I do, because I got to start with, where are you having success in the first place? We are so distracted by the shiny new, Oh, how about that? Or, Oh, what about that? What we really need to be focusing on is, what do we already have? That’s quality. We need to focus on, how do we retain and grow what we already have that’s quality before we get distracted by the shiny new whether it’s a new a new approach, whether it’s new clients, you have to have a mix of that, but it should be the 8020 rule. You should be putting more, far more of your resources into keeping and growing what you already have than putting towards the things that you don’t have yet, because what you’ll do is the more you put on the front side of what you already have, the more clear it will be who is an ideal client for you. Going forward, you’ll your outbound efforts will get so dialed in that you’ll spend less, not just in money, but time and effort, resources and bandwidth going after what an ideal client looks like. You won’t waste your time on ones who are a bad fit to begin with. That’s where I start. You got to start with that customer discovery process. Who do you have already? Why do you have them? What are the common elements of the ones you have and only go to your ideal clients? Does that mean you’re good clients? Let’s say they’re four star, not five star. They’re four star clients. You don’t go there first. You go to your five star clients first, then you can go to your four star but often the problem is our one star clients are taking so much of our time and effort and bandwidth that we don’t have time or so we feel to look at our five and four star clients. And so so much of our time and energy goes to the one star or new and the four and five stars are like, what are we chopped liver or something new cable clients versus existing. I risked my case.
Damon Pistulka 19:45
Yes, that is, that is a great, great, great point. I mean, Kurt Anderson, when we work on it, he talks, he’s a baseball guy. I’m a baseball guy. We talk about the singles, the doubles, the triples, the home runs. So you look at him, you. Segregate your current and your prospective customers like that, and then you really decide where you’re going to put your effort. Because, like you said, One star customers might be okay, might be, you know, put some money in the bank once in a while, as long as they’re profitable. But those, those three, four star customers, those are the ones where, if you can, and there’s enough of them, that’s where you want to spend your time because you you get your best return. They get the best value from what the services or products you provide. So
John D. Hanson 20:26
yes, yeah. And the stats show that typically, your highest maintenance are not going to be your highest return, yeah, sometimes your lowest maintenance are your highest return. And yes, and they’re kind of kind of taken for granted, until either they say they’re going someplace else or they do, and you don’t want that to be the case. Yes,
Damon Pistulka 20:46
that is, that is for sure. That is for sure. And awesome advice. Awesome advice. Now, when we talk about leveraging LinkedIn to drive B to B. Sales, let’s first of all put ourselves in the role of this B to B. Sales, person. Okay, what is the thing that I’m going to want to do, but I should not do.
John D. Hanson 21:16
I got you. I got you, the ones who are most likely to use the platform are the ones who are not natural born salespeople. The ones who are the top performers are hunters. They love the thrill of the chase and the clothes, but the ones like me that value relationships and see that processes and systems matter is that you could spend a lot of time doing a lot of work, that busyness does not equate productivity. What you’ve got to look at is the time that I’m putting into something any platform, but particularly, say, LinkedIn, in this case, what am I getting in return for that? You have to do that. I did that for in person networking. I was going to lots of in person networking. And I took a I read a book, a couple of books, and one of them was a time exercise. How much time are you putting into different activities in a week, and what are you getting in return? And when I did that, I’m like, I have gone to this group for every week, two hours of my week, every week for two years. Do you know how many clients I got from all that work? Damon, all that time? Yeah, zilch, nada. Not a single one. I guarantee you, if you put more time into a platform like LinkedIn, if you do it with a proven strategy or process, then you will get a return. Yes, but what you don’t want to do is spend so much time doing activity that it’s taking away from the things that bring results. So in this case, for B to B, and particularly a complex sales cycle, you know that there’s going to be some time between when a conversation starts and when you’re actually doing a proposal to when it closes. We know that, yes, but what we don’t think about is if you use your ideal time for activities that could be done outside of those you’ve got to put a little bit of structure into how you use this platform. I’m on it often, but I structure it so that it’s not taking away from my peak productivity, times when I could likely be talking to someone, having a meeting, having a conversation, the work behind the scenes that eventually I will delegate somebody else to do. Are those things that I need to do off peak hours? Yeah, so don’t use a platform that’s really good. Don’t get sucked into using your ideal time windows for activities that can be done outside of those. That’s what I would say is you can get I was as I was figuring things out and kind of getting a process figured out. It took me a few years to do that. If you have someone that says, I’ve got a process that works, here’s what you should do, make sure that you’re doing those activities outside of your peak productivity hours.
Damon Pistulka 23:57
Yeah, that’s a great that is such sage advice right there, because it is really those peak hours that you have to protect for your most important work, and that’s probably dedicated to current or close to current customers, just because you want to make sure that they’re happy first. Like you said, their needs are being taken care of, but you can, and that’s just something that that people talk about a lot, the the endless scroll. And yes, people get stuck in that end of scroll. You can, you can be, oh, I was just on a platform for an hour, especially if you’re in something that’s got video based like tick tock, yeah, like that. I mean, it’s real easy to suck yourself up in there. So I love what you’re saying about that stay out of your ideal time windows for other work with your your LinkedIn platform work to make sure that you protect that for the most important things you got to do,
John D. Hanson 24:54
yep, yep. And if you want to check in, because I’m in sales, so. So I don’t want to miss something, whether it be an email or message. Save the top 10 minutes of the hour if you’re going to do an hour block or a two hour block, give yourself 20 minutes at the top of the two hour block. Give yourself time to check into it. Absolutely you don’t want to miss something. The other hand, you don’t want to be constant. I’m easily distracted. That’s why I hate those little red circles, because they want to get they work. I don’t want them to get my attention, but they do. So I limit myself to where I’m 50 minutes of productivity with 10 minute check in time, and then I’m really diligent, too, if there’s something, because I really want to respond as fast as possible, because I want to be highly responsive, got to make sure it’s not getting me off track with what my priorities are for the day. So if you’re a scheduled person like I am, and you get something? Oh, top of that 10 minutes, I got something now that I need to take care of. Make sure, if it’s prime productivity work, it goes into that block. But if it’s not, put it at a place where it won’t interfere from what you need to get done. And then I’m an early bird, so I get a jump on a lot of the Admin Building Research lead gen activities on LinkedIn before my day of productivity starts. So I get a really good jump on that, and then I try to protect the evening from my family as much as I can. So I really try not to be on it after I’m done and home from work. So the early morning hours are where I get the bulk of the work done, and then I get a lot of work done on the on the weekend, I take half a day and I plan out what my content is going to be. I take one day a month, and I create as much of my content for the whole month in one day. And I got my posting schedule figured out, and that’s essentially copy and paste. So while I don’t do the Gary V model, I am posting regularly, but I’ve already created the content so that it’s only costing me a day per month to create all that. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 26:44
yeah. And that’s that you talk about content. It was one of the things that I had had down talk about is content, yeah. And when people are starting out, really, if you’re, if you just started, like, back in 2016 with you, yeah, you really, I believe, and then I’m going to get your feedback on this. Should start by just seeing what is posted and liking some things, liking and making a comment, reading other comments, looking at other people’s posts and engaging with people to get a feeling for the platform, because you’ve been creating content for a while. I’ve been creating content for a while. When we go back to those beginning time you know someone coming in for the first time or not, very familiar with it, it’s kind of daunting when you look at content. I mean, you’ve got a schedule, you’ve got and you’ve been doing it a while, yeah. So talk about that a little bit. We’re starting out. What are some of the things that you want to start out? And then, what’s the first post idea?
John D. Hanson 27:48
Yeah. Okay, so there’s several things there. I’d say, let’s start with the last question. First, what would you what would you post? What are your first post be? Well, it wouldn’t be about you. I know that said what? But it’s my it’s my account. Yes, it is. It wouldn’t be about you. I would make it a story that involves somebody else who brought you to LinkedIn, who’s a thought leader and influencer that you really appreciate, that you know, not one of the popular that everybody knows, yeah, somebody you know, who’s a circle of influence. And here’s why I do it for two reasons. Number one is when you recommend someone else story stick. Harvard business reviews shared a study that showed that when you connect something with a story and it engages with people, they remember that whatever that thing is that’s connected to the story, they remember that 21 times better than just the thing itself. No matter what widget you sell, no matter what solution you sell, if it’s connected to a story, they will remember it 21 times better than if you just share features and benefits. Everybody’s got those but a story that engages, a story that resonates, that’s different, our bodies chemically react to something we engage with, endorphins get released when people engage with the story, which is why bedtime stories are such a big deal. It’s not the book that you’ve read 50 million times, it’s the story that they’re engaging with with you. That’s what I would lead with. I would lead with a story. If you’re comfortable on camera, do a video. If you’re not sure, maybe a video that they’ve got, but upload it so it’s native to LinkedIn. Don’t point them away to another website, because LinkedIn doesn’t like that. Upload the video if you’ve got it. Take a video of yourself talking for just 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, about why you joined the platform. Tag the person that that recommended you get on LinkedIn at John Smith, good friend of mine, respected mentor said I should get on LinkedIn. I love what I’m seeing here. Thanks for the idea, John. Now just guess what you did. You just got access to John Smith’s network by tagging him. John Smith is happy to support you because you’re following his advice and you’re promoting him to his. Followers showing that he’s a thought leader. It’s a win win all the way around. So the first post would not be about you. First post would be about who recommended that you join LinkedIn and why, and then you boost them, that will automatically get you new followers just from who you shared it with. So that would be my first post content. You’ve talked about several things, Damon, connecting, engaging, supporting. When you comment, you can like something, but that’s not going to move the needle. You can comment great post that doesn’t move the needle. The algorithm smart enough to know if you’re just playing the game or if you really want to engage with others, if you want to engage, then here’s what you do. You said that Damon. You said Do your research first and find out kind of what’s going on on the platform. Who are thought leaders in your space, who are centers of influence in your space, who would you like to connect with first degree, start digesting their content and making comments that are a sentence or two. Tag them if you can say at John Smith, I really like that. Here’s why. Just a comment or two, a sentence or two in the comments, you’re supporting something, because the algorithm for LinkedIn values engagement. If you’re helping drive engagement to someone, they appreciate it, they recognize it, they notice it, and then they’ll start connecting with you, and they’ll start engaging with you. So you’re right about that, if you can be others focused, to people who are active on the platform, who are thought leaders, who have a good base of followers and connections, who appear, as best you can tell, as authentic and genuine, then I guarantee you’ll grow your base with those same kind of people.
Damon Pistulka 31:33
Yeah, that’s good. That’s a great, great advice on the first post and connecting and engaging. I actually have a friend of mine multiple it’s years ago now, but he did the same strategy with Gary V, and Gary V mentioned him in a video down the road, and he was super ecstatic about it, right? Because, you know, Gary Vee, I don’t know how many followers he got, I don’t look at that, but he’s got a lot, yeah, and Eddie mentioned him in person because he made a thoughtful comment. He had done it for, I forget it was like 90 days everything coming out. He was really putting some potential work into it, and made a thoughtful comment. And Gary Vee mentioned him, said, Hey, this is I think about you. So it was a 22nd video with mentioning him, and it was, you know, so my point in that whole thing is, is there is a lot of power, like you say, in engaging with people with thoughtful, meaningful comments.
John D. Hanson 32:35
Yes, there sure is. There sure is, and people that are active on it, they they notice it, and they appreciate it. Yep, yes. Think of yourself as this way too. Don’t think while you’re learning this, and I know you might be brand new at this, even if you’re not brand new at it, think of yourself as a creator, not a consumer. The reason that you’re on this platform is to create, is to post content, is to grow and your impact and your influence. That seems a little grandiose. John, I got 12 connections, yeah. But if your goal is to be on there, to consume like everybody else, you’re like everybody else. If you’re going to use this platform to grow your business, to grow your sales, to become known in your industry, you have to think of yourself as a creator, not a consumer. You can’t consume enough of the content. On the other hand, you can be in the top 1% of creators in your industry, because all it takes is a little bit of intentionality and consistency. You mentioned 90 days he made a comment, a well worded comment, to Gary V for 90 days before he got a response. Still he got a response after only, I say only 90 days of making well worded comments every time Gary V and he posts a lot that was intentional work, and he got the return. Imagine if you do that with people that are centers of influence, that aren’t Gary V, but they’re active on the platform. Your return will be faster. You’ll grow a network. You’ll become known in your industry, but you have to think of yourself as a creator first, not a consumer, because you mentioned that it can suck you in, and you’ll be like, Wow, look at all this great content when you do that. And I’ve caught myself doing that like, whoa. I’m not consumer. I’m a creator. Timeout. Well, I enjoy all this stuff. I will. I could enjoy. I could never run out of enjoyable things. And the algorithm smart enough to keep feeding you the stuff that’s interesting based on what you look at. So don’t give into that. Make sure you think of yourself as a creator, even though you may be just starting, or, you know, you’ve got a little ways to go. It doesn’t matter where you think of yourself, of where you want to be is the work you will put in to get there. Don’t be a consumer. Be a creator.
Damon Pistulka 34:38
That is great advice. That is great advice, because if you think of yourself as a creator, even if I’m creating great comments on people’s posts, or, yeah, creating happiness by the what I can spread, yes, it’s all good, but you’re right the creators, and this is why people create. This is why people post on LinkedIn. Is because you can. Uh, if you’re creating and helping others, you can, you can rise to the top 1% and it’s still one of the platforms that you can do this. I mean, when you look at a Facebook you could work your entire life and never move the needle in Facebook because of the the size, because of the way it’s set up, and lot of things, yes, and a lot of people don’t realize, what are the stats now, like on people that are actually creators on LinkedIn, is it like less than a percent or 2% or something like out of
John D. Hanson 35:31
the hole in the US, the people that post daily, 20% of users post daily, over 60% of users in the US post once a week. So if you want to be in the top 40% you post twice a week. You’re already there. Yeah, post daily. You’re in the you’re in the top 20% of US users once a day. And I know some of you might be a little camera shy. Covid was helpful for me, because I learned how to talk to a camera like I was talking to a person. I didn’t have that skill before covid. I did so many webinars in that year or so. I learned how to talk to a camera. I had public speaking experience, but I didn’t know how to talk to a camera. Well now I do. You’ll learn how to do it too, if you practice it just a little bit and remember, authentic does better than the polished people that don’t come I have met some very accomplished speakers on stage. I just blew me away how talented they were and how they engaged the room. Fascinating. I learned so much from that backstage. Different story, different story. So it is better for you to have a video that’s authentic and perhaps a little shakier than you would like, not perfect, and then when people meet you, the brand experience is the same. You’re consistent on camera and off camera. That is better than the ones that are polished, perfect, well edited, and they couldn’t give a crap about you unless you spend money with them. So authenticity, again, that’s that’s where it’s at. And everybody starts with making, oh, I, I cringe when I if you don’t look back at some of your older content. John Maxwell said this, if you aren’t embarrassed by some of your beginning content, then you are way too full of yourself, because we have always started at not where we’d want to be and gotten and we this is the thing, though. Isn’t this interesting? Damon, you talk to anybody who’s established, they never settle, never. They’re always trying to get better at what they do. We’re gotten better than we started in day one. Imagine how much better we’ll be at day 100 and we’re only at day 50.
Damon Pistulka 37:32
Yes, yes. And it’s funny, you say that because I was just examining my posting, style, strategy, all kinds of things to to create different ways. And, and what is it now? I don’t even know. I posted daily for like, five years now, and before that, a couple years of of a few times a week. And, and it’s it is it? Is that process of getting better? And it’s not because, I think the people that do it, because they really enjoy sharing information, are the ones that I enjoy reading their stuff, the more because, and I try to people ask me, they go so well, how do you how do you do this? And you and we’re going to talk about your book, because you’re you’re four books deep, and I applaud you for that. But when you talk to people that write or create, and it’s happened to me, and I really didn’t even realize it until someone was talking about this while ago, you come up with a creative process that works for you. Yes, and I read an awful lot. I listen, No, I shouldn’t say I read. I listen to Audible. I walk a lot. I work out. So I’m listening to Audible all the time, but I’ve got the note note thing. Open my phone if I hear something that’s a nice idea, I put it in my own words and go, that’s a topic idea, that’s a topic idea, that’s a topic idea, that’s a topic idea. I might between the videos and audio the books that I’m listening to On Day, I might drive drop six topics in a day, yep. And you go, Okay, now if I use that, and I’ve got a posting format that I like, and then this kind of comes together into something where you start to go, like you said, I’m going to put the months together in in a day, you can start to really generate some quality content that shares you authentically and helps people with the information you’re sharing and create real wins like that for people that are reading
John D. Hanson 39:26
it. Yep, you’re right. That’s one of my non negotiables Damon that I learned, kind of I go through it subconsciously when I meet people, is, are they curious? Are they always learning? Because if they are, those are the kind of people I want to be around. I want to have in my life. You can only have so many, even in your closer group of professionals. And so that’s one of my non negotiables. Are they curious? The way you know that is, do they ask questions? Do they ask good questions? They ask well worded questions? Are they reading, studying, listening, absorbing new content? If they are, those are the kind of people that I want to be around. I. The ones that are just sponges that the curiosity gap doesn’t scare them away. They know the gap will be there the rest of their stinking lives, and they’re okay with that. Why? Because they’re always learning this insatiable hunger and thirst for more knowledge, not to puff ourselves up, not to get bigger and bigger heads you don’t fit through the door, but so that you’re our brains want new ideas our brains feed off that. It keeps you young, it keeps you energized. So it doesn’t matter what it is be absorbing as much content as you can from all the sources that you like and respect, you’ll always have something to share of value with others. That’s
Damon Pistulka 40:34
awesome, awesome advice there. And now I want to because we’re kind of winding down here, but I want to talk about your your latest book. You’ve got another book coming out, but you’ve got the winning secrets how a dictionary and a ruler can change your life. I gotta understand what that’s about.
John D. Hanson 40:55
You know, the I had the main title for years. It’s a seven year project. So I got the idea pre covid, covid through a two, three year time out in the middle of everything, where I had to go back to square one career wise, yeah, but I finished it up after seven years. What was so helpful about it was that I still remember the day that it kicked off. 2017 my first book, very first one. Wow. Your customer. Seven Ways to world class service. I self published through Amazon, sold copies on every continent. I didn’t sell millions. I just sold copies on every continent, and that got me opportunity to be a panelist overseas in the world of customer experience. Well, the very first chapter is a winning attitude, and I promised myself when I wrote that book, and any book following that if I came across any word that I thought could be rich in meaning, I wouldn’t just settle for what I commonly understood, or others say it is. I would go to the dictionary and I would study all of the definitions and its origin. Where did it come from? Well, I almost didn’t do that for winning, you know Damon, because obviously we all know what winning means, that I might wet. I promised myself. All right, so I’m going to go to the dictionary. Pulled out my bright red hardcover Webster’s dictionary for my college days, and I looked it up. And it wasn’t the first definition. I mean first definition, excelling in competition, Blue Ribbon, gold medal like that. Was a waste of time. It was, it was definition number two that changed my life. And I remember where I was sitting the day it happened. It was one word all caps, and the Word was success, and it instantly hit me like I stopped breathing. Was how hard this impact hit me? Of if people are using the first definition for winning at life, and they’re not the first, richest, most, fastest, whatever, if they’re number two, number 186, if they’re not number one, and business school ourselves, well meaning parents will do it for you. If you’re not number one, then you’re automatically labeling yourself as a loser. However, if you go by the second definition, and it’s success, that is the definition that you can live by. So people needed the right definition, the right ruler to measure that, and they need to celebrate the right things. And that was Chapter One of the book. And then I interviewed Highly successful people, and kind of gleaned from their lives people. There might be one person that people know, the others people have never heard of, but highly successful people of high character, and I just gleaned from their lives the principles about how they won. My contention Damon, is that everybody, unless you’re on death row and happy about it, everybody, is winning at life, but they got to use the right definition, the right ruler and the right celebrations to realize that they already are so they can win more at life. And that’s what the book’s about. How do you win more at life.
Damon Pistulka 43:43
Let’s just take a moment here and think about that, because you said something so powerful in that that I think people need to understand first of all, winning is not just first place. No. Winning is success in your terms, in your situation, in your in, your scope of where you’re at, yes, in, in, everyone is winning in some way, shape or form,
John D. Hanson 44:07
in more ways than one. Always, that has been my experience, yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
Damon Pistulka 44:14
Wise, wise words there, wise words there. John it, and, and we, and if we are going by the first definition of winning, we will always be disappointed.
John D. Hanson 44:24
Warren Buffett is not the richest guy in the world, but I I’d say he’s winning pretty good right now. Yes, as are a whole bunch of others that we all know. Michael Jordan missed more shots than he made, but I don’t see people calling him a loser. It’s it’s really about how we view it, how we frame it, what definition we use, and where our toughest critics. And I’ve the book has been so impactful that I’ve had people within my own family. You know how this how, like, knocked me over, like Damon, like my own family? Yeah, this book is good. Like, not your mother, not your grandmother, the one say, Oh, that’s nice, and it’s. Crap. No, no. People within my family that are realists that I’ll tell you, if it is a pile of crap, they’ll tell you, and they mean it. No, I’ve had people say this. The message in this book was so helpful. And chamber I had people crying, sending me messages saying I read page 69 and I’m crying. Thank you so much for writing this book. It I read it regularly, or listen to it regularly, because I need to be encouraged with those same truth. I don’t do any spin. It’s not magic, smoke and mirrors, it’s the truth, and people just need to be encouraged by that. That’s
Damon Pistulka 45:31
so awesome. John and and I so if people want to get a hold of of your books, they’re on Amazon. That’s right,
John D. Hanson 45:40
yeah. So the best place to go is, is on Amazon. You can get in any format you like. I narrated the book, so audible version, nice is, in my voice, you get paperback, hardback, ebook, Kindle, however you like to get digest content. It’s there, especially if you like to listen,
Damon Pistulka 45:56
yeah. And now I’m just going to repeat the titles. It’s winning secrets how a dictionary and a ruler can change your life and then your book before that was while your customers seven ways to world class service that is those two that you gotta go out and find them on, on Amazon, get them into your audible, wherever you whatever format you want to read them Well, John, I just want to say, first of all, thanks for being here today. We’ve got to wind up. We’re getting getting to that time. If you you’ve got another first of all, though, before we leave, you’ve got another book coming out later this fall in November. Let’s talk about that for a moment and wind down. Yeah.
John D. Hanson 46:41
So I appreciate that Damon, heroic leadership, anyone can be a courageous leader, is the name of the book I love that Dave study the definitions leadership and heroism changed my paradigms on what those are. And I’ve been in leadership roles, and I learned leadership is not what we do. I also learned heroism is not what we do. That has got to be so encouraging to people that, well, I’m not in a leadership role. Well, I don’t do that job. So of course, I’m not a hero. Ah, I beg to differ, and so will the book. It’s my most requested session for the conferences that I’ve spoken at, is heroic leadership. Now I’m turning into a book. It’s coming out this November. I’m very excited about that, because, again, it’s another major paradigm shift. People don’t see themselves as leaders because they don’t have a role, a experience, so on and so forth. Or they don’t see themselves as heroic that I can understand, because even I didn’t understand it until I studied the words and then I put them together. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 47:38
that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So you said it’s going to be in later in November. It’s heroic leadership. Anyone could be a courageous leader. Yes. John D Hanson, thanks so much for being here, my friend. If someone wants to reach out to you and talk to you, what’s the best way to get a hold of you?
John D. Hanson 47:56
Well, believe it or not, even if you’re B to C, even if you’re like, I don’t like LinkedIn, you can find me in all different kinds of ways. LinkedIn is the best way, because I got so much content there. But you can also hit my website. John D hanson.com h a n, S O n, d is my middle initial. John D hanson.com you can check out my books on on Amazon. I’ve got a YouTube channel. John D Hanson, all different kinds of ways you can interact. I’m on Facebook as well. Find me on the platform. You like the best. I’m on it. I’m not on Tiktok, but I am on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. I got my own website. I got on YouTube. You can find me on Amazon. There’s all different ways I would say the best to LinkedIn, my favorite platform, and you’ll find out why, especially if you’re in business or sales. And then the other way I would say, would probably be YouTube. I’ve got so much content out there. All those will point to my website, but I’d say those two YouTube and LinkedIn, all
Damon Pistulka 48:48
right. Well, thanks so much. And I want to just say thanks. Paul came in with a comment. He said, even negative comments are good for the Google algorithm, so it’s real human engagement. You are right there, Paul. I want to say, kazara, thanks for being here today as well, and all of you that listen but didn’t comment. Thank you. We appreciate you listening every week. We appreciate you coming back. And I want to say, if you came in here late and didn’t start from the beginning, go back to the beginning, because John was dropping some golden nuggets about getting started on LinkedIn, building good connections on LinkedIn, and then really laid into more all the way through his books and things he’s doing. Thanks everyone for being here. John, hold out just for a moment. We’ll finish up offline.
John D. Hanson 49:34
Thanks, Damon, you.
