0:10

welcome to lifelong educators,

0:12

a community of teachers, of parents, of

0:15

anyone interested in the future of education,

0:18

it's new innovations and how we can

0:20

keep doing it all better and better

0:22

and better. Our guest today

0:25

always knew he wanted to be an educator and

0:27

got the training for it, but could

0:29

not find the opportunity.

0:32

Some of the reasons might surprise you? Well,

0:35

he created his own Thomas

0:37

Joseph territory, sales hunter, and

0:39

ed tech sales at the sea. And auto is

0:41

here to inspire you.

0:44

I'm Jackie gusta, associate

0:46

professor at WCS U and

0:48

I am joined today by my cohost gesture

0:51

to cough senior advisor, click

0:53

to an online enrichment program. And

0:56

of course, Thomas Joseph himself.

0:59

Welcome Thomas and Josh. Thank

1:01

you. Thank you. Thank you, Jack and

1:05

Thomas, you're coming all the way from, yeah,

1:08

I'm based in Kuwait at the moment. somewhere in

1:10

the middle east, this

1:12

place I was raised and I grew up here. Yeah.

1:15

And yeah. at the moment I'm a regional

1:18

sales consultant for a company called

1:20

Scholastic, which is the world's largest

1:22

publisher of children's books and resources.

1:24

I love the job. I love working with children

1:27

that the idea of putting books

1:29

in people's hands excites me. Yeah.

1:31

now you, you are going

1:33

to show us how we can break down barriers,

1:36

but you've had some barriers to break

1:38

down yourself. you know, when I first started out,

1:40

I think, when I first became a dad really, you know, and

1:42

then having a child and, you

1:44

know, one of us had to stay at home and it was me

1:46

who decided to be the stay-at-home parent. And

1:49

I think the first year was just a completely,

1:51

eye-opener a brand new experience, something I've never

1:54

experienced before. And, you know, just

1:56

with the child and everything, I had to

1:58

YouTube, basically everything for me to see.

2:00

Right. So. I kind of had

2:02

to do all of it. And I picked up on that. And

2:05

then after a while I think a few months into it, I was

2:07

like, you know, what can I do to kind

2:09

of still continue being with my child and

2:11

still be able to contribute in certain ways? And

2:14

that's when I kind of decided I wanted to go become a teacher,

2:16

what are we going to do early childhood? And again,

2:18

we were in the middle east in Kuwait, my wife's,

2:21

she was working out at the time and I

2:23

had stolen. This is what I wanted to do. So. Kind

2:25

of backed up bags and moves to New Zealand,

2:28

for a couple of years where I could study to become

2:30

a early childhood educator. I

2:32

did a. I was there for about two and a half years

2:34

that came back to Kuwait, and then continued with

2:37

the degree. And then I was able to work

2:39

in a school at the moment. it was difficult to

2:41

work as an early childhood kid in Kuwait because

2:44

just being a male in a middle Eastern country,

2:46

it was difficult to get in. But then I just found

2:49

my way to a school, was started right from

2:51

the very bottom as an assistant's assistant. If you will, if

2:53

you could say. And, and worked my way up

2:55

to being a good one teacher kind of thing. It

2:57

took me about four years to do. but in the meantime,

3:00

just had the lovely opportunity of taking my kids to school.

3:03

You know, I could take my kids with me to work the

3:05

whole time. So that was a really exciting part. And

3:08

while I was there, an opportunity came up

3:10

with this company called Scholastic right here

3:13

in the middle east. Didn't really know much about Scholastic

3:15

and the opportunity came up. it was a perfect

3:18

allegation of me being in sales prior

3:20

and as neither good work into it.

3:23

And I loved it. I just loved the

3:25

opportunity of working with Scholastic. you know,

3:28

just gave me the. Paul

3:30

kind of structure and process in my life to make

3:32

this thing move forward and pass

3:34

the word around. So that's kind of what I kind

3:36

of woken on my barriers, but I'd say

3:38

the biggest thing that

3:40

came, the biggest obstacle that was in my path was

3:43

just being a male, teacher in Kuwait

3:46

and getting past that and convincing parents and

3:48

other teachers that I was somebody who had

3:50

a place within the school system.

3:52

So I think that was when I came out of that. That's

3:57

his background, and I want to welcome everybody

4:00

in our audience today. If you've

4:02

got any questions for Thomas, you have

4:04

any comments. Please put them in the chat.

4:06

Here's your chance to talk

4:09

to somebody who can really help guide

4:11

you and inspire you through your own

4:13

journey. And I also want to bring in Josh,

4:16

Josh, you are down

4:18

in the middle of Mexico. That's

4:20

right. Yeah. We got to cover what

4:23

you covered. We've got Mexico, we got Kuwait.

4:26

And you know, I'm sitting here reflecting

4:29

on my own past silently a little

4:31

bit, and can relate a little bit to what,

4:35

to what Thomas is saying, you know, because,

4:37

I was, didn't have.

4:39

And obviously, you know, trying

4:42

to, set up an education company,

4:44

which we've talked about in the past on other

4:46

shows was really focused on, PTA's

4:50

and PTA's are, are really led

4:52

in an unbelievable way by a lot of

4:54

moms, and it's volunteer effort

4:57

that they do. And I would sit

4:59

down at the table and that was face to face with them

5:01

and, and, You know, I didn't have

5:03

a kid and, and then

5:05

I was a guy and they're like,

5:07

what are you doing here? And

5:09

so it took time. To learn

5:11

how to relate to them, and to earn their

5:13

trust. And it was on me to earn their

5:15

trust because I wanted to be

5:18

a part of their community and similar

5:20

to what I think, you know, our friend

5:22

here had to go through as well, which is

5:24

we knew that we were kind of outsiders and

5:26

I accepted that and he accepted that. but

5:28

you were in that trust and look where it

5:30

takes you. So you got to break down the barrier,

5:33

but after you do that, you feel good about yourself

5:36

and you feel good about the place that you are. Hmm.

5:41

So Thomas, Josh

5:43

just mentioned something really important. He

5:45

talked about breaking down those

5:48

barriers.

5:49

So you told

5:51

us a story at one time, how you

5:53

did, how you even resorted

5:56

to sweeping floors to

5:58

get through. Yeah. Yeah.

6:01

So that was just trying to get

6:03

some work. Right? So part of when I went to the school

6:05

in New Zealand, part of the deal was that I had to be a full-time

6:07

employee with a daycare center.

6:10

And I just got in there maybe four days

6:12

prior. I didn't know anybody. And

6:14

I asked the school, I was like, You know,

6:16

who can I call? And they took out this big folder

6:19

of books of contacts and just gave it

6:21

to me. And I don't remember.

6:23

I remember it was a 62nd one, so

6:25

I made 62 calls and on the 62nd

6:28

call, this lady was like, all

6:30

right, just stood up and we'll see what we can do. And

6:32

I was like, okay. And I remember going

6:35

into the meeting, this lady, she

6:37

was the person who was running the place,

6:39

the manager. He

6:41

had this gene spans on with that

6:44

high boots. grandfather was a motorbike guy.

6:46

And so she was one of those ladies

6:48

and she looked me up and down and she was like,

6:50

do you have any experience with, working with children and economic

6:53

dad, but I really don't know much. And

6:55

the first thing she did was just gave me a mop, told me to

6:57

go stand by the corner. And she said, I want

6:59

you to observe, and I'll see you in two weeks. And

7:02

she didn't actually even say it two weeks and she said I'll see you in a few days.

7:04

but all I want you to do is keep your mouth closed.

7:06

Just keep observing, and then we'll talk about it. I

7:09

would say in those two weeks, I kind of, you know, I,

7:11

I did my best to keep those flows as clean as possible.

7:13

I was all over that all the times I was on

7:15

it, but I was also observing and learning and

7:17

things like that. And I think I worked my way up from

7:19

there. to, you know, to a position that I was happy

7:21

with, which was in terms of my focus

7:24

within the school since early childhood,

7:26

was social, emotional development. And I think that's

7:28

where I kind of was focused on making

7:30

sure these children were social, emotional healthy.

7:33

And I think my, my

7:36

area of expertise was, you know, when, when new

7:39

kids were brought into the center was getting

7:41

them acclimated to the, to the center.

7:43

So that was not an easy process. Lots of teachers

7:45

struggled with that. you know, but it was all about. Making

7:48

the child welcome, you know, staying with the child.

7:51

Not budging and not being too, not

7:54

pulling the child too towards you, but letting the child

7:56

actually settle down and be calm and,

7:58

you know, taking care of the child, bringing them water,

8:00

bringing them food slowly kind of thing, and get

8:02

them, you know, ease them into the center

8:05

kind of thing. So that was my expertise. And

8:07

I worked my way up from there And all the

8:09

time. That's kind of how I actually did it. I

8:11

I think the main focus to overcoming

8:13

any obstacles is to number one,

8:15

just keep doing the work, right. If you believe

8:18

in the work Keep doing it, no matter

8:20

what, you know, opportunities will come that

8:22

is, will fall as long as your mind is

8:24

focused on the work. So I think that would

8:26

be my biggest takeaway is just, you

8:29

know, you might see a better, you might see an obstacle and things

8:31

may not look really open for

8:33

you, but then just focus on what you're good

8:35

at, put down the work and keep

8:38

at it, and then things will happen. So

8:40

that's, that's what I believe you

8:43

talking about her appearance.

8:45

Yeah. And Josh knows a little bit about that

8:47

too. Yeah, this

8:49

guy, you know, Thomas, what you're talking

8:52

about as you're, as you're, as

8:54

you're talking, it sounds like a, I mean,

8:56

I can only imagine why you're an amazing person

8:59

to sell for Scholastic, you

9:01

know, because basically that you've laid

9:03

out what should be the process

9:05

for anybody. I think in terms of selling,

9:08

you know, you're going to be, you're going to persevere

9:11

because you believe in Scholastic, but

9:13

I was imagining kind of how you potentially

9:15

do Scholastic sales with people, which is.

9:18

Walk them into the product, you

9:20

know, let them get used to it. Talk

9:23

to them about. Find out where they're

9:25

coming from, you know, and how you can help them,

9:27

which is, the way to do it. And then talk

9:29

about how this can be a really good thing for them.

9:31

So, you know, I can imagine you're very

9:34

successful, you know, I've tried to work with you more

9:36

and more, and, and, but I think that that's a really

9:38

good approach when it comes to sales is you're

9:40

going to persevere for sure. You're going to break down

9:42

the barrier. You're going to get there. You're going to figure it out. But

9:44

in the meantime, you've got to let the client or

9:47

the child in that case. Get

9:49

more comfortable with the situation that they're

9:51

in. So that it's a good, a good

9:53

experience for both sides. Absolutely.

9:56

I think, you just nailed it, nailed it right there. You know,

9:58

the, the essential part is, is

10:01

not, is not pushing what you have onto

10:03

anybody, right? It's, it's bringing

10:05

them, easing them into it, kind of finding out what

10:07

their needs are, respecting their space

10:09

and understanding what they want out of the situation

10:12

and then giving them the opportunity

10:14

to come into it and use, use your stuff

10:16

on it. So you would see us for example, that's

10:19

exactly what it is like you don't call and say. from

10:21

Scholastic, yo here's my 10,000 words.

10:23

Go ahead and get it right. You kind of identify

10:25

what their issues are. What are the challenges at the

10:27

moment? Try and understand, prioritize what

10:29

their needs are, you know, figuring out what they, you

10:31

know, where they're at, where they'd like to be and how you

10:33

can help them get there. So I think that's,

10:35

if you can figure that what those things. are Then

10:38

you're not really selling at the end of the day. You're just helping them

10:40

with their needs and figuring out how to

10:42

best help them overcome challenges.

10:44

And I think that's the mindset that you need to have

10:47

when you're trying to sell anything to anybody.

10:49

Right? You don't push what you had wanted

10:51

to somebody, you figuring

10:53

out what the needs are. And if you

10:55

can solve for that, then yes.

10:57

You know, you want to move forward with that. You don't want to,

11:00

you'd never really want to sell somebody

11:02

something, something that they don't need. So, you

11:04

know, that's, that's where I'm at with sales.

11:08

Well, you have a pretty interesting

11:10

take on this. Something I've

11:12

never heard from a sales person

11:15

is that you try to tap into

11:18

your client's, empathy into

11:20

their gratitude. Can you talk a little

11:22

bit about that? Sure.

11:25

I think all of us,

11:27

you know, we all, each and every one of us were working,

11:29

you know, we were working for our families.

11:31

We were working. We want to do

11:33

the best that we can, just to be good at our jobs

11:35

to make sure that you're helping other, the people you're supposed

11:37

to be helping and just move forward with that. So understanding

11:40

that, you know, just coming from a place

11:42

of being grateful and I'm so grateful

11:44

for the opportunity, both for Scholastic and that this past six

11:47

years it's opened doors for me, it's,

11:49

showing me what structure and process means. It's,

11:51

it's taught me how to understand what other people

11:53

are going through, you know, and every

11:56

one of us, we all have our ups

11:58

and downs. All of us have rough days. All

12:00

of a sudden, it's just people open to understanding

12:02

that. Right. And. Just

12:05

be, when you understand that video video,

12:08

when you're connecting to people who might

12:11

have a rough day, you might call them at a certain point.

12:14

They're just not happy. And for

12:16

some reason, they're screaming at you just to understand

12:18

that it's personal it's until

12:20

they actually meet you and know you and then

12:22

scream at you. That's a different story. But if not,

12:25

it's not, you can call. I've done that many

12:27

times as well. People have screamed at me on

12:29

the phone, right? Stop calling me.

12:31

Don't do this. leave me alone and all of that, you

12:33

know, and then I call them a week later. Sometimes

12:35

they don't even recognize me again so I can start

12:37

all over again. But if they do remember, it's

12:39

usually thank you for calling me

12:41

back. I was embarrassed to actually talk

12:43

to you again, but you know, I was having an off day or,

12:46

you know, something happened. It's just

12:48

being open to that, right. Because. Understanding

12:50

of that process. Like it's, it's fine because

12:53

the thing is, even when I'm selling you something, look,

12:55

I'm not selling you something you don't need. I

12:57

believe in what I'm selling. I believe it's useful to

13:00

you, to who are talking to,

13:02

it's going to help you. It's going to help students. It's going

13:04

to help teachers. And that's why I'm calling

13:06

it, right. I'm not just calling just to waste your

13:09

time. And at the same time, I'm

13:11

not wasting my time just calling random people.

13:13

So we all kind of working and having

13:15

that kind of. Understanding and empathy,

13:18

that's going to take you far in what you

13:20

want to be doing. So yeah, I

13:22

think that's, that's where I come from. It does

13:24

that. Yeah.

13:28

Yeah. I mean, it's, I just read something

13:30

from HubSpot that landed in my inbox

13:32

today. and 43%

13:35

inboxes have 43% more emails

13:38

in the same time last year. and

13:41

what's, what's really interesting. I think about. Thomas,

13:44

I've never received a sales

13:46

email from him or a phone call.

13:47

but he stands

13:49

out, you know, as, as somebody

13:52

who is different. So whether it's 42%

13:54

more emails, you know, when you get the opportunity

13:56

to, to, to talk to Thomas,

13:59

you do realize that that

14:01

empathy, you know, that that

14:03

passion is actually very true. And

14:06

so it does come from. And

14:09

I don't know if you're the exception

14:11

or the rule, probably the exception

14:14

to really be able to sell

14:17

what you believe in. you know, I, I feel

14:19

the same way, so maybe both of us are

14:21

exceptions. but, you know, you, you, you

14:23

really do live that, that you. You

14:26

that you practice what you preach. And

14:29

then Jackie, you know, we, I keep sharing

14:31

it with you on LinkedIn. And like, here's more,

14:33

here's more Tom takeaways and here's

14:35

more from Tom cause it's real. Like Tom

14:38

gives back in the, in, in, you

14:40

know, in the internet, which is, you

14:43

know, Lord knows how big that is and

14:45

he stands for. With his empathy

14:47

and giving back to people. And then you, Tom

14:49

has his takeaways with Jackie. You can explain,

14:52

but like, then you have all these other people

14:54

were like, thank you for sharing. Thanks for including

14:56

me. Thanks for what you do. And you

14:58

got to 1000, right?

15:02

Absolutely. I think, you know, that's,

15:04

that's really been a really, exciting ride when

15:06

I first started her on LinkedIn. Just

15:09

trying to learn and from other people

15:11

and just figuring out that you

15:14

can really basically learn from anybody. Right.

15:16

So it doesn't have to be somebody

15:18

famous. It doesn't have just somebody who's been there just

15:20

about anybody. You just have a conversation, there's something

15:22

to learn from them. And I think that's what I kind

15:25

of started this journey about Tom's takeaways was,

15:27

and I would go, I would browse the LinkedIn pages

15:29

and look. Things to known from

15:31

it. I would pick on all these things that really seemed

15:33

really interesting to me, which was connected either to my

15:35

sales work or something I had to

15:37

do about how to live my life in a kind of a more positive

15:40

way. And I would remember first taking down these

15:42

notes on a piece of paper, you know, just to like

15:44

read them later. But then I would see that

15:46

every day I was putting down these notes

15:49

and, at some point I was like, you know, these are

15:51

great. But I think, you know, it was just for

15:53

my eyes only, and I wanted other people

15:55

to see it. And so I think

15:57

that's why I kind of started posting it on, on LinkedIn

15:59

was well, two for two reasons. One

16:02

was when my kids grew up, you know,

16:04

my daughters, I want them to see this one day, if they

16:06

wanted to get inspired or, you know, get some insights

16:08

and see what. But at the same

16:10

time, it's just being able to spread what

16:12

I was learning everyday. Just to put it there so I

16:14

could help other people, you know, if there's this

16:17

one or two people, that that was my initial idea.

16:19

If there's one or two people who saw it and got something

16:21

from it, that'd be great. So it's been,

16:24

yeah, I do 10, 10, 10. Coats,

16:27

three times a week. and yeah, at least a thousand

16:30

last week. So that's been really interesting. it's,

16:33

it's kind of uplifting as well. It helps people

16:35

and inspires people and even the people I quote

16:37

as well. you know, I think it's just,

16:40

it's kind of a booster as well. Somebody

16:43

recognizing the world, somebody that can and get bulls

16:46

and that I think also kind of bumps them

16:48

up to do better and keep going. So

16:50

that's where I'm at topstick visits. So it's

16:52

something really, I'm really proud of in

16:55

terms of I'm happy to have,

16:57

sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Give us

17:00

an example of something you posted last.

17:04

Something possibly, yeah, there's there's one, one

17:06

post from this one person posted that

17:08

she, she corrected me and said, no, that was a lyric

17:10

from Taylor swift, which was a

17:16

no don't, there'll be,

17:18

don't be. So don't be too kind that you stopped being

17:20

clever and don't be too clever

17:22

that he stopped being. You know, so I,

17:25

I think that that was quite inspiring. I

17:28

can't believe you didn't pick that out. Taylor swift,

17:36

this is just, just those kinds of things. Right.

17:38

Even in sales and even with lots of things.

17:42

You can't be completely done until you figured out how to

17:44

be a great teammate. just those kind of things, lift

17:46

people up, pass along, gigs,

17:49

you know, identify your own board of directors. You

17:51

know, if that makes sense. Right. So I

17:53

think that's really, really changed

17:56

my life in terms of having to find mentors

17:58

and people to help me out and

18:00

learning. before I got on LinkedIn, really, I remember

18:02

complaining to my wife, we were living in Kuwait

18:05

and just telling her, you know, there's not a lot of kind

18:07

people out there. And one

18:09

day when I, when I do my own thing, I'm going to

18:11

make sure I'm going to be kind to everybody and things

18:13

like that. And she was like, what are you talking about? Good

18:16

people everywhere. And I'm like, I don't see them, you

18:18

know? And then I got a LinkedIn and

18:20

just. All these people,

18:22

this random string, this from all across the world,

18:25

just willing to help. Right. Just taking

18:27

time out of the day and their time to give

18:29

me 20 minutes. Give me 30 minutes to tell me what I'm

18:31

doing. Right. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Well,

18:34

so inspiring and it kind of changed my

18:36

whole outlook in life. I'm such, such

18:38

a more positive person now. I

18:41

I've, you know, I've got that back, that thing back,

18:43

but I, you know, I believe in people, I try to help

18:45

as many people as I can. And so, yeah,

18:48

it's really, really, I think it's helped me more than

18:50

anybody else that don't stick with for

18:52

sure. Yeah, that's

18:54

cool. You know, Thomas, we

18:56

have a question for Miriam in

18:59

our audience and she wants

19:01

to know from you, what type of innovation

19:03

would you like to see in early childhood education?

19:08

Oh, that's an interesting question. Yeah,

19:13

we can talk about, yeah,

19:16

I know. There's, there's lots of things, right? I think the

19:18

main thing. Anything that has to do

19:20

with keeping these kids happy. you

19:22

know, there's show, there's not a focus on them learning

19:25

and you know, they, they need to do certain things.

19:27

I need to be set of milestones and they need to do all these

19:29

things while they grow up. But I think. Things

19:32

that keep them happy. You know, that keeps, that

19:34

keeps them, makes them social. That helps

19:37

them in the social aspect of it. I'm very

19:39

intrigued by anything that has to do

19:41

with any program that has to do with keeping

19:43

children like socially positive and,

19:45

you know, maintaining their social health at that

19:47

age, especially two and a half to four and a

19:49

half, I think. Finding

19:52

out things to do that, you know, kind

19:54

of promotes that idea of, you

19:56

know, being kind to one another. I know

19:58

we talk about this all the time, but it

20:00

does have innovation. Yeah.

20:02

Something like that. Something that's more focused

20:05

on that than anything else. I think I would love to

20:07

see something like Thomas, what

20:09

about, what we're passionate about here at click

20:11

two, which is online learning, you

20:13

know, how do you, where do you, where do you fall on online learning

20:15

for in early childhood education?

20:19

Okay. I think, you know, maybe it's

20:21

different from the adults and oldest kids

20:24

and things like that, but online learning, for sure

20:26

can help children as well, but it has to be more

20:28

tailored to them. Right. More gamified.

20:32

Short shorter versions of not

20:34

half an hour, not even 20 minutes, but maybe 10

20:36

minute clips and things like that. I think

20:38

those wouldn't hold the attention. Right.

20:41

So there's something like that. So in terms

20:43

of online learning, using gaming, a

20:45

gamified approach, That's

20:48

going to help them, but something that's

20:50

also focused in very, in a very short

20:52

bus so that they don't spend a lot of time,

20:54

like on online, like on the computer, but

20:57

short burst and different clubs that they can actually, you

20:59

know, keep coming in and out of

21:01

the program as, as, as let's

21:04

take it one step further, online learning.

21:07

We're passionate about it for adults as

21:09

well. And you know, one of the other

21:11

things that. which I, I wait for

21:13

it, like my Sunday, you know, posted,

21:16

they used to throw on the, you know, your

21:18

steps back in the day, right. Is

21:20

Tom posts, all of the things,

21:22

the webinars he's going to attend

21:26

each week webinars or, you know, groups

21:28

on Thursday night. And so Tom,

21:30

you got to like talk big time here about

21:33

the pandemic, please learning

21:35

online. And then

21:38

the positive aspect of being

21:40

in a different time zone from the east

21:42

and being able to take advantage of what goes on

21:45

in the us. So I'm leading you into

21:47

to talk a lot here about a few different things. Absolutely.

21:50

Absolutely. So I think just during the pandemic,

21:53

we were all in that face way and like,

21:56

oh, at first it was the,

21:58

oh, this is not going to last too long. You know, don't

22:00

worry about it. That it morphed into this

22:02

is going to take forever. And we just going to sit in

22:04

our homes and do nothing. And, you know, we made it out.

22:07

And then at the end of it, you know, we'll probably wait it out a year or

22:09

two, but, and see what happens after, but. I

22:12

just started getting more involved with getting

22:14

on LinkedIn and trying to figure out how to

22:17

kind of level up and get better at my job. So

22:19

just to give you an example of last March,

22:21

2021, when it broke out, you

22:24

know, the pandemic broke out. Everything shut down. My

22:27

year was ending in may and I

22:29

was not going to reach, it was not going to get my bonus,

22:31

but I was very unhappy. I was like,

22:33

you know, what am I going to do? How am I going to

22:35

move this forward? And then I remember June

22:38

1st was the first day of the year. and I was

22:41

like I got to do something different. I got to figure

22:43

out how to level up. I need help.

22:45

you know, I'm not going to be able to do it by myself and I need,

22:47

I need to figure out how to get better. And that's

22:50

when I started getting online so to speak,

22:52

getting on LinkedIn and figuring out

22:54

how to level up. And the one thing I connected

22:56

with, especially with the U S was right. you guys have

22:58

specialists in every single

23:00

part of the sales process. I'm talking

23:03

like, an email subject. There's somebody

23:05

out there, right? the cold calling the first 10

23:07

seconds. You've got somebody here. So

23:09

this is different people. What

23:12

is going on. Yeah. Hold on a minute. Wait

23:16

a minute. You know, and I was like, all right. And

23:18

so I started that. I started that. I started

23:21

looking for people. Okay. Email, subject line, not

23:23

more than three months. It next line.

23:25

All right. The email body, it shouldn't be more than 120

23:28

words. All right, let's do this. You know, just those

23:30

kinds of things. And then the structure of the email read

23:32

first, figuring out the chapter. The extra

23:34

drugs. I, and the same thing with the cold calls, same

23:37

thing, all of that. I started

23:39

learning and I started meeting these people.

23:41

I started connecting to sales leaders

23:43

on and seeing what they were up to. And

23:46

so I just completely leveraged everything

23:48

online, sitting in my room in Kuwait right.

23:51

And figured out, Hey, how do I make this work for

23:53

me? And then connecting to all these

23:55

people who are talking about everything

23:57

related to what I wanted to get good at. And

23:59

so that's what I started doing. And the. Yeah,

24:03

it's, it's infinite in terms

24:05

of the webinars, in terms of podcasts,

24:07

there's so much to listen to and so much

24:09

to learn, but I think the one critical difference

24:12

is also, you know, you've got to apply what

24:14

you're listening to, to your actual work.

24:16

it goes back to always doing. your work And so everything,

24:18

everything I would learn, I would start applying. I've stopped putting

24:20

into, and I, I think in my team

24:22

here in Kuwait and in the middle

24:25

east team, I think I was one of eight

24:27

people who actually hit my targets for this year. I

24:29

had, I think I did 150%

24:31

of all my targets. So I think that

24:33

kind of solidified,

24:35

you know, the process of going online and picking

24:37

on what you want to do in today's world. It's

24:40

2021 Anything you want to do,

24:42

you can do online. I have

24:44

a 10 year old came to me last year and

24:46

said, dad, I want to learn Swahili. And

24:49

I was like, what are you talking about? she's like, yeah,

24:51

you know, last year in school, our teacher did the geography

24:53

and I wanna learn Swahili. and we got online

24:55

and we found a teacher, from Kenya who was

24:57

happy to teach my child. So him and

24:59

she's been learning that for the last 10 months, you know?

25:02

So it's, it's that. And I think that's

25:04

the motivation. It's not. Is

25:07

online learning gonna work That's not

25:09

the question. The question is, what do I want to. learn

25:12

How can I do it. how can I get the

25:14

best kind of learning out of it and do it

25:16

in a, in a way that's really cost effective for me. And

25:19

that's, that's all you got to figure. out So I don't think the question

25:21

is, is online learning something we need to focus

25:23

on what, what is it that we want out

25:25

of it and then go online and going to get it. So

25:28

it's there you know, especially living in

25:30

these kinds of parts of the world, there's

25:32

so much opportunity out there. and it's something that everybody

25:34

needs to get into for sure. 100%. Jackie,

25:37

one last question for me. I know. I,

25:39

but I gotta, I gotta ask this is

25:43

Dotan and I from click to we, we

25:45

spend a lot of time talking to enrichment

25:47

providers, about what

25:50

they provide, whether it's karate

25:53

or a language or

25:55

art. And a lot of them

25:57

are, uh, really excited and I'm happy for them because

25:59

I've been in that space for a long time. They're going back to

26:01

in-person, which is fantastic.

26:05

We also talked to them about indirectly

26:08

your family in Kuwait,

26:11

who would love to take an art class from,

26:14

in our provider in Frederick, Maryland. I know

26:16

Marsha young Rembrandts or, you

26:18

know, a chess program that

26:20

originates out of Chicago. So

26:23

can you talk about that? How there is this desire,

26:26

you know, to, to take these classes

26:28

from outside of the U S. Thomas.

26:33

Can you talk about it as a, as a parent? Look,

26:37

as a boat, we do not have these kinds of opportunities

26:39

that we will have if we didn't have the online access

26:42

to, an art glass here

26:44

is, you know, should we have

26:46

it, but it's not something that we are really,

26:48

really well known brands

26:50

coming out of it. And the price wise, it

26:52

dumps cost. For example, just to

26:55

give you an idea. Maybe a 45

26:57

minute class could be about $50. and

26:59

then that's just on an average and it's the

27:01

same thing goes for all

27:04

the other things, as well, even learning chess,

27:07

trying to play an instrument, all of that with,

27:09

we're still talking lots of money here and

27:12

it's not, Octopart, it's not something that we

27:14

as parents, you know, kind of satisfied

27:16

with. We take it because that's our only opportunity. but

27:18

otherwise, no having

27:20

said that. All

27:22

of us, like everybody be known has moved

27:24

online, everything we want for our kids.

27:27

Now we get it online. and not only is it cost effective,

27:29

we get to choose what we want. We can

27:31

get to pick the best of everything

27:33

that we see and then provide that for our

27:35

children. And I think that's what we want more than anything

27:37

else. so, you know, being able to get

27:39

access to that, I mean, access to play to them, all

27:41

that you guys. All of that. I think that

27:44

makes a difference, especially for

27:46

people, these parts of the world who

27:48

don't have that, you know, and different types

27:50

of who can't go out and get it. I think that

27:52

that's, that's where you got to play a suit, so

27:54

yeah, absolutely. Thomas,

27:57

do you find that there's a lot of collaborative

28:00

online learning for the kids

28:02

or not? Is it more

28:04

one-on-one. No

28:07

100%. I think the, the collaborative

28:09

aspect of it is something that encourages

28:12

children. You know, the one-on-one is great or attending

28:14

classes are great, but having these collaborative

28:16

sessions where you, they can actually talk

28:19

to the other person talk to other students,

28:21

it gives, it gives them a sense of belonging.

28:23

It kind of motivates them to get back to the class,

28:26

you know? So all those things really play an

28:28

important role. My, my daughters,

28:30

I've noticed that, you know, in the first time of the

28:33

schooling, we have actually moved them into

28:35

online schooling, by the way, we don't send them. So

28:39

just doing that with the middle schools, and watching

28:41

the schools then create these sessions

28:43

where other students to participate in all this, you

28:45

know, the students can participate with each other has

28:48

been really, really helpful for our children, especially

28:50

being locked in, you know? And,

28:52

I think there's also, there's also an online

28:54

school. Well, not

28:56

a school, but an online peer to peer

28:58

kind of center in Dubai

29:01

that was kind of offering free where

29:03

all the students like in grade nine and grade 10

29:05

could then tutor these other

29:08

kids, like younger grades, no

29:10

cost at all. It was completely free with assessment, social

29:12

interaction of it. But the older students

29:15

could put that, put that down in their college applications

29:17

and things like that. It is meant for that. So

29:20

just having those kinds of collaborative efforts, I

29:22

think really plays an important role. it kind

29:24

of motivates them to kind of want to participate,

29:26

you know? And

29:31

you though. I mean, it's the same when you're

29:34

talking about your kids. It's interesting, based

29:36

on our relationship, I think you're

29:38

kind of talking about yourself, right. And how

29:40

you were like, I'm stuck at home.

29:43

I'm just gonna use the worldwide web here.

29:45

And I'm going to, I know where I want to get to

29:47

and learning, and I'm looking forward to learning

29:49

what these folks I have. To make

29:51

it to that Thursday night sales

29:55

meeting, because Thursday night is date night

29:57

with my wife and I, I'm not, I'm

29:59

not changing that. Right. I'll, we'll be in a lot

30:01

of trouble and I enjoy it. But

30:03

you know, you have that Thursday night thing, right.

30:05

You wake up at what, three o'clock for

30:07

that east coast. Yeah. So

30:11

because it's got two of my favorite people on there. One

30:14

is called lease and the other one's Amy Wallace, and

30:16

both of them are like sales, you know, Great

30:19

leaders. Fantastic. They achieved

30:21

great things in terms of sales. They're where

30:23

I want to be at some point. but I think what was Stan?

30:25

What stands out for me is this. So

30:28

empathetic and so kind, these people are, they,

30:31

they they're doing is running

30:33

Scott, Lisa's running a consulting business, he's got six

30:35

or seven projects. but, I can guarantee you

30:37

this, you send him a text, he'll respond,

30:40

you send him an email, he'll respond to you. Like it's

30:42

guaranteed. We're going to ask them to be on

30:44

the show, by the way, 100%.

30:47

I mean, it's guaranteed. This man will go out

30:49

of his way to help you. No matter how busy he is. And I

30:51

think that's. So as to follow, it

30:53

was a Thursday night, every Thursday evening,

30:55

I think about seven or 8:00 PM Eastern

30:58

standard time, which was, Sometimes three o'clock

31:00

3:00 AM. Sometimes 4:00 AM, depending on daylight

31:03

savings. but I haven't missed one since

31:05

last October for at least a lot class

31:07

months, I haven't missed a single session. but

31:09

you know, it was just going to these meetings

31:11

and seeing for me, it was a learning experience

31:13

as well. There were other people that talking

31:15

about actual. Issues

31:17

that they had at work and how, what

31:20

they do to solve it in a very positive,

31:23

you know, like confidence building

31:25

may kind of thing. So that's what, but

31:27

I think that the whole idea is that if you are

31:29

interested in something and you want to learn, you

31:32

know, you, you got to go ahead and do it, you

31:34

know, and it's, it's not like

31:36

it's the am. I mean, it sounds like Liam is

31:38

a big deal, but it's not a big deal. If you sleep

31:40

at night. The day before. So

31:43

it's just kind of figuring out how you want, what

31:45

you want to do and it just your life accordingly. And so

31:47

that's the idea. you can do everything in this

31:49

world that you really want to do. And especially today, especially

31:52

with the world wide web, you know, you can

31:54

do it, you just have to want to do it and it happen.

31:57

So that's, that's the one thing. Yeah.

32:01

You know, Thomas, I want to talk to you about

32:03

one of your selling techniques.

32:06

You say that yeah. You find

32:08

solutions to overcome your

32:10

clients, quote, unquote pain

32:13

points. Can you share that

32:15

with us? Look

32:19

again. It's just kind of identifying what,

32:21

what the issues are like. Let

32:24

me give you an example. So again, during the pandemic

32:26

we had one of my suppliers. And

32:29

he was running this business with schools, but all

32:31

schools shut down. and he was about to give up

32:34

and he was like ready to close down. And I kind

32:36

of. Know, I'm sending books to

32:38

him. So I went to him and I was like, Hey, what's going on with you? And

32:40

he's like, you know, everything is shut down,

32:42

Thomas. I think I'm at the end of my rope, you know,

32:44

don't know what to do. Probably have to shut down

32:47

the business has gone. you know, and I'm going to struggle.

32:49

So it's kind of coming from that place, right.

32:51

Trying to help him with his idea of like, my

32:53

business is struggling. What can I do? And so

32:55

in my mind is not about selling books anymore. It

32:57

was how do I help this? It's

32:59

figured out how to say this business, how do

33:01

I help save this business? Kind of, that was, that was

33:03

the question that was going through my mind. Not about

33:06

how can I sell him my books and that's it.

33:08

How can I help this man, you know, with his family?

33:11

How can I, what can I do? And so I

33:13

remember coming back home at that time, thinking, you

33:15

know, he sells books and who buys,

33:17

which at this time, no, one's buying the bookstores all

33:19

closed, but then I was looking at home. I come

33:21

home. My wife's ordering books

33:23

online for our kids. And I'm like, what are you doing?

33:26

She's like, we need the books. Everybody

33:29

needs the books. The schools are shut down. Our

33:31

kids need books. They going crazy. We need to get them. And

33:34

so that's when it clicked in my head, you

33:36

know, my wife's are able to Amazon,

33:38

it costs a hundred, $120 just to ship

33:40

it over and people are paying it over here

33:42

because they don't have any other choice. And

33:45

so then I called this man back and I was like, Hey,

33:47

you know, have you ever thought of doing this thing

33:49

on. Know, let's start

33:52

selling your books online, you know, whatever

33:54

you have. And he was like, what

33:56

do you mean? I can't build a website. I said, you don't have to

33:58

build a website. Get on Instagram because

34:00

Instagram is the one social media that's

34:02

everybody uses. That's the number one platform

34:05

and started just putting books out there and saying you're

34:07

selling them and then promoted. And

34:09

he started from that point, he was like, you

34:12

know, I'll give it a shot and see what happens. six

34:14

months later. meeting the man and now he's got,

34:16

an online delivery business. So he's

34:18

hired six people with cars

34:21

to go and deliver books to people in Kuwait.

34:24

You know? So it's,

34:26

I didn't find what was the paintball. Hey,

34:29

here's my books. Take it and you know, good

34:31

luck. I've done my job. I've not done my job.

34:33

If I'm not held this man with this pain points, that's

34:36

what I mean by finding solutions to the people spending

34:38

for us. Whenever you're trying to push something on someone

34:40

first, figure out what is the look, look at their needs,

34:42

what do they want? What are they looking

34:45

for? Right. If you're trying to sell it to a school, a

34:48

principal is just come on board and he's a brand

34:51

new principal. The first thing

34:53

he wants is to make sure that whatever he

34:55

brings into this. You know, it

34:57

doesn't mess him up. It doesn't get a bad rap

34:59

out of it, but so that's, that's where he comes.

35:01

So you, he's going to make sure that everything is checked down

35:03

to a T, he wants all, everything signed.

35:06

He wants all the data dies. So that's how

35:08

you kind of make sure, you know, you kind of help them

35:10

with that. You kind of find out that's what he

35:12

needs, you know, so that's what I'm going to get him.

35:14

So that's how you operate. You just figured out what their

35:16

pain points are, figure out what, what

35:19

can I do to help them get better at what they want

35:21

to do? And that's how you kind of. sell Hm.

35:24

So you've told us how to start a relationship,

35:27

but how do you continue to keep

35:30

your clients? Yeah,

35:33

that's, it's, it's not very difficult. It's always

35:36

just being transparent, you know, being

35:38

completely open and transparent, again, identifying

35:40

what their needs are and being very clear about

35:43

it. If a person needs a, B

35:45

and C. That's what you would recommend

35:47

a, B and C. You don't tell a,

35:49

B, C, D E F G. We tell them, you just

35:51

need a, B and C. And just being honest about that,

35:54

right. Even though the a to Z costs

35:56

a lot more money, so you don't need that. You just

35:58

need a, B and C now, let's go with that, you know?

36:00

And so helping them recognize what they

36:02

need, being transparent about it.

36:04

And again, you know, going

36:07

back to always thinking about

36:09

them and making sure that they're happy and they're going

36:11

forward because. When are we starting

36:13

a relationship with someone it's always long-term

36:15

right. You always want a long-term relationship. You want

36:17

them to remember you always

36:20

thinking a couple of years down the road, right? If I meet you

36:22

today, Jackie, I hope to keep

36:24

in touch with you. And in a couple of years, So

36:27

in some way, they get docked to you and things like that.

36:29

So that's how I want to treat other people.

36:32

It's it's understanding, you

36:34

know, it always has to be a win-win situation.

36:37

That's, that's how I kind of always look at a relationship.

36:39

If they're happy, I'm happy, then,

36:41

then it's good. Right? What if, what

36:44

if you're not happy? What if you're not happy?

36:46

I mean, we've all, I've had some relationship

36:49

with some schools where I'm like, it's

36:51

just not working for me. I love the business

36:53

and we eat the money, but this isn't working for me.

36:55

So what if you're not happy? 100%,

36:58

at the beginning of us, you know, I, I would not be happy.

37:00

I would just take the deal because that's the deal coming through.

37:02

Yeah. But I've learned to,

37:05

I've learned that it doesn't work for the long term.

37:07

and, and if you're not happy at

37:09

some point, they're not going to be happy either. Right.

37:11

So you, you know, that's when I said

37:13

it, so it's always better to nip it in the bud, you

37:15

know, before me, what you,

37:18

what you want to. You know, don't

37:20

again, don't, don't let them

37:22

take advantage and don't take advantage of anybody

37:24

basically. So that's the idea. It's when, when

37:27

you know, and if you happy, happy,

37:30

if you're not happy, if I'm not happy

37:32

at some point, you're not going to be happy either. That's

37:36

the idea. It's just, you know, let's try

37:38

and be happy here because the thing is. We

37:40

are happy if it takes care of,

37:43

issues. If they scared about challenges, they scared

37:45

about solutions. If it provides a solution.

37:47

Great. You know, that's what we want it to be. So

37:49

yeah. Happy, happy. It

37:54

does sound like a relationship, right?

37:57

Yeah. Eight nights. We'll

37:59

fix all of that. So a

38:03

number, you know, I'm sure a number of people

38:05

listening to you now. Might

38:08

have some hesitation about

38:10

jumping to the online platform.

38:13

I know that working in a university.

38:16

it's not welcome online is not welcomed.

38:18

And it is, shunned

38:21

actually, as though it is a

38:23

lesser way to learn than

38:25

in person learning.

38:28

So if some

38:30

of the people out there who are listening

38:32

to you now have encountered

38:35

that barrier and you are an

38:37

expert in overcoming barriers,

38:40

how could you help them in that case?

38:44

So I think it's,

38:47

it's a mindset, right? and, and maybe maybe

38:49

15, 20 years ago, that might have been the case

38:51

where, you know, people felt that. But again,

38:53

it's, it's a mindset. It's a feeling, when we go

38:55

online, when you go online to learn. Well,

38:58

two things. One is the knowledge right at the beginning, get

39:00

from it. Is it, is it the same as we will get as

39:02

we report in person? That's the one thing

39:04

that we got to be got to see and the

39:06

other one is possibly certification,

39:08

right? having an online certification is not a blessed,

39:10

lesser value than the one you get online. So.

39:13

Before there was a debate. Now I don't think that is,

39:16

you know, at least in the last 10 years, I

39:18

think I've seen it. Doesn't matter when you

39:20

go online or you go in person, certifications,

39:22

the same knowledge wise again, it's

39:24

the same. Right. And it's, again, it's your mindset

39:26

and how you apply it. The most that you get that

39:29

that's what matters more than anything else. So I've

39:31

done kind of. Parts of it. I've gone online

39:34

in person and online. And

39:36

for me, I, I prefer online for sure,

39:38

because it gives me my own. I can have my own timings.

39:41

I can, you know, I have a family as well, so

39:43

I could then time, you know, put the classes

39:45

when I want to do it. and I also like

39:47

the, I didn't have complete control of what I'm learning and

39:50

I'm able to get, you know, if I,

39:52

if I have a question, if I have some issues, there's

39:54

always a class, there's a forum. There's some teachers

39:56

that I can get out to the, somebody I can reach out to.

39:59

It all boils down to a mindset and

40:02

the idea of your perspective. it's it's only

40:04

a barrier in your kind of head, if, if what if

40:06

that's what I want to do that I'm going to do

40:08

it, you know? And if, if that's your

40:10

attitude, the barrier kind of dispense

40:13

away because you're figuring out how to do it, going

40:15

in person, you know? Sure. It's

40:17

great. But I think just that, that's mostly, also

40:19

just the social aspect of it, but I

40:22

personally, before. And

40:24

for those of you who are there, who, you know, who's

40:26

having doubts about it. Look, you

40:28

have to figure out in your head. Like I said, it goes

40:31

back to what knowledge am I chasing?

40:33

You know, well, what is it that I'm going to get out of it?

40:35

Do they provide it for me? And then the second

40:38

part, obviously again, as a certificate,

40:40

is that a value for me and then figuring

40:42

out what you want to do and then move forward from there.

40:45

But don't, don't let the idea of like, oh, it's all lines.

40:47

I don't want to do it. That's that's putting

40:49

yourself off from opportunities that, that are. but

40:51

I guess, you know, I work with a lot

40:53

of what I would call dinosaurs who

40:56

don't want any online education

40:59

coming into our institution.

41:02

What would you say to them? I,

41:09

I, I'm going to be 50 in a couple, so yeah,

41:12

I would say, look, and that thing is exciting,

41:15

you know, they say, yeah, let's do it the way that I used

41:17

to do. And that's great. But when

41:19

you adapt, you know, there's this dissonance

41:21

a little bit, you're not used to what's happening.

41:23

It shakes you up a little bit. But at the end

41:25

of it, I promise you it's exciting.

41:28

it opens up so many doors, there's

41:30

opportunities everywhere, and you're like, what is

41:32

going on? And I'm glad,

41:34

you know, I'm a dinosaur. And

41:36

so I think that that'll help. I

41:39

mean the always, always good ways,

41:41

no doubt about that, but sometimes

41:43

the new path, you know, there's, there's

41:45

opportunities that we never thought with that before.

41:47

So I think I'd recommend training

41:49

all the new pads for anybody out there dinosaurs.

41:52

So, so

41:54

Miriam has given us another question

41:57

for you and she wants

41:59

to know which I think is a very interesting

42:01

question. How do you learn the communication

42:04

style of your clients? not usually

42:07

you pay attention basically to work

42:10

to, to, to the body language, to the

42:12

tone, to their wives, to their, all of those things. Again,

42:14

there's this, you can get on LinkedIn. There's

42:16

lots of people that can help you with each one or every

42:18

aspect of it. That's like looking at this profiles,

42:21

you know, there's looking at my breaks just

42:23

to find out what kind of people they are, but usually

42:25

it's just understanding. If you

42:27

come from a place, if you come from a place

42:30

that you are empathetic and you

42:32

understand other people and you respect

42:34

yourself as well. You know, you're there

42:36

doing a job that's out there to help other people,

42:38

people will connect with you. And it's just

42:40

matching that kind of thing, understanding where they're

42:42

coming from. you see somebody who is stressed.

42:45

You don't want to be bubbly and giggly, right. If

42:47

you see somebody who's like really stress, cause you're

42:49

not sure what happened. I love, I've spoken to

42:51

people who have, you know, they're

42:53

in school and they're like, yeah, my dad passed me 40

42:56

years ago. and I'm glad that I didn't come in there all

42:58

bubbly and happy and things like that because when I entered

43:00

the door, I could see he was stressed. Match

43:03

that kind of thing. So that's kind of

43:05

just understanding other people, paying

43:07

attention to body language, paying attention to facial,

43:10

you know, how they move, what they do. Just pay attention

43:13

to all of that. When you talk to people, I think that

43:15

shows empathy that shows, you know, understanding

43:18

and people that come in. Okay,

43:20

good. So Miriam's going to press you

43:22

a little more. Go

43:25

for it. She says school leadership teams

43:28

and administrators are beyond busy. What

43:31

would be your first three key

43:33

pointers to make the first introduction

43:35

and get their attention? Yeah,

43:38

I wish I knew the answer to that. I've

43:40

been trying, I

43:42

think every human being is different, but again,

43:44

recognizing that they are super busy, right.

43:47

So you've got maybe 5-10 seconds

43:49

to call the attention and then we'll forward. And

43:51

that's, I think that's what anybody who's running,

43:53

any organization, you don't have much time

43:55

with them. but I think it's just following a multi-pronged.

43:58

So using different styles, probably

44:00

send them an email, maybe a week later, send them another

44:03

email. So they get familiar with the name. Then it gets

44:05

familiar with the company, you know, the

44:08

email, keep it short and sweet. the third time

44:10

try calling them, You may or may not leave them a voicemail,

44:12

but if you call them and you get a voicemail and

44:14

the name of your company and your

44:16

name, usually when I get, when I leave a voicemail,

44:19

my call goes something like this, Hey,

44:21

sorry. I missed you. I'm sending an email

44:24

look out for Thomas from so-and-so company

44:27

I I do. That is the whole

44:29

idea of the voicemail is again,

44:31

they recognize the name of the organization. They recognize

44:33

your name, calling somebody and

44:35

not leaving a voicemail for me is like

44:38

a tree falling down in the forest side. You're not sure if

44:41

they heard you or not, but the whole idea is to create

44:43

familiar familiarity with the customer.

44:46

So you keep doing that. And then after you call,

44:48

you didn't get through you send them another email.

44:50

But in that other email, you send maybe a link

44:53

to. Something that might help

44:55

them something that's of interest to them. Right. So some

44:57

articles say, maybe here's

44:59

how you take 12 minutes out of your day, out of your

45:01

busy day to, you know, do some meditation, do

45:03

some mindfulness and things like that. So it's

45:05

not completely, always about your stuff.

45:07

It's again, trying to give back and trying to help them

45:09

with something that they might be visiting. And

45:12

also like again, the admin assistants

45:15

and the secretaries make friends.

45:17

with them Be nice to them and

45:19

try to get to know them and, you know, that they can

45:21

be a ticket in as well. So I

45:23

hope that helps us. Let's

45:25

let's take it one step further. after watching,

45:28

my friend, our friend now probably Pablo

45:30

Pablo's friends, they're really public Gonzales. He's got

45:33

a great show. and one of the shows was about,

45:35

leveraging video. And I've started

45:37

doing this as well. I'm not sure truly

45:40

how people feel about it, but I do send a lot

45:42

of like bloom videos that are 30

45:44

seconds or a minute long. My, my training

45:46

is in broadcast journalism. So I

45:48

can, you know, chunk those 10

45:51

minute emails down to 30 seconds pretty easily

45:53

and feel very comfortable. So what

45:55

about using, you've

45:57

talked about email short emails. You talked

45:59

about a phone. You know, to direct

46:02

them back to the email. What about using video? Have you started

46:04

using video? I

46:06

actually have, an actually this last week, I actually

46:08

set out, 16 years and against

46:10

shot, 30 to 40 seconds. It

46:13

was 60, not too many, but 60.

46:18

Yeah. but they were short. They were like 40,

46:20

40 seconds long. Right? Again,

46:22

it all depends on your audience. It depends, you

46:24

know, they'll feed out

46:26

of the 60. I had 30

46:28

people who opened up the email, but

46:30

only four people looked at the video. So

46:34

that tells you, you know, what I spend about,

46:36

I would say about five, five and a half hours to

46:38

put all that together. And so, you

46:40

know, the platform yet. Yeah.

46:45

So it's yeah,

46:48

it depends, again, it all depends on how

46:50

much time you got, you know, whether you want to personalize it. It

46:52

depends on which, which part of the sales cycle, you

46:55

know? so I think my, my recommendation. If

46:57

you're targeting, if you're doing a targeted emails,

47:00

like a dark targeted context, like

47:02

you pick out 20 of your top customers

47:05

that you want to go and meet, you know,

47:07

do your research and then put that video together

47:09

where you connect with them. talk about some of the challenges

47:11

that you've seen. So for example, if it's a school

47:14

you want to look up the website, the newsletter,

47:16

look at what their priorities are. Look at their

47:19

state report cards, those kinds of things. So

47:21

put all that information together and make it more personalized.

47:24

That thing you might get better returns on that. Yeah,

47:26

Joyce, who's our organizing your community

47:29

here. Joyce, if you want to put Ethan's book in

47:31

here, a human centered

47:33

communication. I can't pronounce his last name. I think it's

47:35

Butte. I watched them on Pablo show and I think

47:37

that people might find that interesting in

47:39

terms of, you know, maybe

47:41

this is something to think about emails.

47:44

Voicemails we get, but how can we start

47:47

using in the sales process video?

47:49

because you know, it's people get to see your face.

47:51

They get to know you a little bit sooner,

47:53

and here hear that voice and see the face. So

47:56

I don't know, Joyce, if we can pop that in there. either, it seems like

47:58

a good dude and he's onto something. So not take

48:00

us on a tangent, but video messaging,

48:02

I think is something that is good in sales,

48:05

it's different and it

48:07

could possibly get, you know, you want to

48:09

differentiate yourself out of that 40%

48:11

increase in emails that people are getting. Right. and this is one

48:14

way to try and do it. So yeah, for sure.

48:16

I'd recommend going and trying it at least,

48:18

you know, absolutely. So

48:22

tell us you're a powerhouse

48:25

when it comes to selling and inspiring

48:28

and all the above going from sweeping

48:30

floors all the way up, but

48:33

there might be people who are listening to you right

48:35

now who just

48:37

don't have the courage

48:40

to start something,

48:43

to keep it growing. Can

48:45

you inspire them? You

48:50

know, That's life and Joe is not

48:52

very easy and, things come at you and you know, there's

48:54

a lot of things that comes out here, but I think the one

48:56

thing that's really powerful is your inner voice

48:59

that has more power view than anything else or

49:01

anybody else. so start, start with the good

49:03

world. Tell you, you can't do it. It's you, when you talk

49:05

to yourself saying, yeah, I don't think I can.

49:07

you know, you making the assumption, well, I don't want to make this

49:09

call today because I think, you know, he would get

49:12

pissed off at me. So it's all your inner voice

49:14

talking. But I think if you can just start

49:16

slowly working on changing that voice, you

49:18

know, I think I can do

49:20

it. I got to figure out how to do it. I

49:23

didn't turn into somebody who, you know, who could do

49:25

great things just by. It wasn't

49:27

a switch. It didn't happen in one day, one day, took

49:29

me a few, at least a year

49:31

or two to actually get like more

49:33

than one aspire to that. I was conduit

49:36

one. It's not going to happen. You know, it's not

49:38

going to work. Don't want to do it. You know, all

49:40

those costs, all those things. But it was me

49:43

recognizing after point, I'm just talking to myself

49:46

and then changing that conversation, my head to

49:48

say, Hey, you know, why can't I do

49:50

it? I think. And here's what I'm going

49:52

to do it. And just having, you

49:54

know, dialogue to go, you know, grow that into

49:56

data, just be kind to yourself, talk,

49:59

starting positive things to yourself, you

50:02

know? And when you start doing that, you start

50:04

hearing more of it, you know, you'll, it'll come

50:06

become a reflex action when you try

50:08

to approach something. Now, when I post something

50:10

it's not, I can't do it. It's

50:13

still number one is, do I want to do it? And then number

50:15

two is okay. I figured out how to do it. That's

50:17

what I keep saying to myself. I don't, I don't

50:19

have a conversation in my head that goes anymore. Oh, that's

50:21

too difficult. I can't do it. It's now

50:24

do I want to, yeah. Okay. Then I'll figuring out how

50:26

to do it. So that's the idea. Just keep

50:28

building that inner voice, keep talking

50:31

positive stuff to yourself. Right? You needed,

50:33

we all needed to just keep, keep staying

50:35

at to yourself and it, it is true. What you,

50:38

what you think will manifest. So

50:40

yeah, I hope that inspires somebody. So

50:44

when, so when people come

50:46

into those roadblocks, the first

50:49

you said, I can do it, but second, you

50:51

said, figure out how to do it. What

50:54

if you find a roadblock there, what's

50:56

the way out of that. you know, if the doors.

50:58

by the window, you know, and the windows

51:01

aren't working and, you know, come back and go,

51:03

go try to the kitchen. You know, like it

51:06

started giving up. That is an

51:08

answer for everything. it, you, you,

51:10

you got to keep going, you got to keep boring. You

51:13

know, there's people have escaped from prisons

51:15

or them is not meant to be, you know, that couldn't

51:17

be broken out of. So if,

51:19

if, if your mind wants it and

51:22

you. There's always a, there's

51:24

always a way there's always a path. You know,

51:26

you just have to find it, take some time

51:28

and be frustrated and do

51:30

all kinds of things to you. But. Just

51:33

the idea of like, I'm just going to keep

51:35

at it. You know, I'm going to figure it out, how to do

51:37

it. They said I can't do that. Great.

51:40

Thanks then that's not the person I need to be

51:42

talking to. Let me talk to this bus.

51:44

Hey, do you think I can? And that's kind of how

51:46

I've kind of moved it. I initially started

51:48

with people telling me absolutely

51:50

not. There's no way. And I'm like, okay,

51:53

Hey, what do you think? Oh, maybe you

51:55

can try this. Cool. I'll try that. What

51:58

do you think? And so that's, it's a step-by-step

52:00

process. It's slow maybe. Just,

52:04

you know, you understand that that's what you wanna do. Go

52:07

ahead and do it. Just keep at it. You

52:10

will find a way it's worked for me

52:12

and I don't work for everybody else. Yeah. Jackie,

52:16

Thomas is a modern day. Andy do frames

52:18

from shotgun. He's

52:22

going to break on through pandemic.

52:24

Ain't going to stop this guy. He's not only,

52:27

but he's Andy to frame. And

52:29

he helps the other prisoners. Right. And he helps, his

52:31

kids, you know, learn online. He helps

52:33

the, the, you know, the guy who almost

52:35

had to shut his book business down. He helps him out

52:38

of the jail. So he's our modern day. Andy do

52:40

frame. Yeah.

52:44

Hello? Yeah. Wow.

52:49

So, so I

52:51

would like, I would like you to

52:54

give us, please some takeaways

52:57

that you can inspire us with right now,

53:02

putting you on the spot. Yeah.

53:04

I'm so inspired. I want one more, again, it's

53:06

be, be, be kind to others, but

53:08

especially. karma is a real thing. Absolutely.

53:12

in a, what you put out in the world, it

53:14

will come back to you. I've seen it happen to me, blow

53:16

my brains out in terms of the way

53:18

it's happened. and that's probably another story for another episode,

53:20

but that's, that's the,

53:23

one of the things that I'm telling you it's karma is absolutely

53:26

always, always, always.

53:29

You know, nothing we can move forward unless you do

53:31

the work. So you can learn as much as you want

53:33

to learn, and you can listen to whatever you want

53:35

to listen to, but you got to do the work.

53:38

So just develop the discipline to do that

53:40

work and be consistent with it, you

53:42

know, fall off the wagon as many times as you'd like,

53:44

and that's completely okay. You know, get

53:47

back up my backbends, broken

53:49

a few times at the build a wheel

53:51

and, you know, climb up again and start moving. Just

53:54

keep it one step at a time, 1%

53:56

a day, 1% a day, you know,

53:58

it will get you ready to go at some point. So yeah,

54:05

exactly. Yeah,

54:08

yeah. 100%. Yeah. Joyce,

54:11

Joyce, put your LinkedIn link in

54:14

the chat. And she also says

54:16

that Tom's takeaways are

54:18

up to 1001

54:21

takeaways at this point. So,

54:25

you know, unfortunately we are running

54:27

out of time. So is there

54:29

anything first Josh, you would like to add.

54:33

No, I, I would, well, yes, I would

54:35

suggest, that everybody truly

54:37

follow. We've never done this on the show,

54:39

but, but honestly connect with Thomas.

54:42

it's good for him and it's good for you

54:44

and it's good for the rest of the world. And

54:46

you can see what, you know, these inspiring

54:48

quotes as they go from 1001

54:51

to 2001 and all the way up to who

54:53

knows where. And then every Sunday

54:55

he tells you about. all these awesome

54:57

webinars and, and, you know,

55:00

places he's going to be online and

55:02

shows you that, that there's just

55:04

so much to learn online. And

55:06

we're passionate about that. So I encourage

55:09

everybody to, to connect with Thomas

55:11

the way I did it was really helpful in my

55:13

life. And

55:15

Thomas. Yeah.

55:26

you know, just continued

55:28

learning, you know, always trying to

55:30

help people around you. there's always a way,

55:33

you know, you just have to want it and hopefully

55:36

I hope you all get where you need to go. Oh,

55:41

yeah. And we have a nice comment

55:44

from the audience who says, thank

55:46

you so much. They're looking forward to looking

55:48

at, your takeaways every Sunday.

55:51

So I want to thank you both Josh

55:54

from click two and Thomas

55:56

Joseph. Thank you for your inspiration

55:58

today. Excellent.

56:01

Thank you guys. Thank you. Yeah.

56:03

And we'll see everyone

56:06

next week in lifelong learners,

56:08

Wednesday at 11:30 AM.

56:10

Eastern standard time. Bye guys.