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With so many marketing messages bombarding everyone, what do you do to rise above the noise? Authentic and thoughtful marketing could be the final frontier for marketing in business. Sit back and enjoy as we interview the principles of of real businesses as they talk about their distinctive and authentic approach to reaching out to new prospects. When you rise above the noise, your marketing doesn’t seem like marketing at all. I’m Jaeson Tanner. Welcome to the Zero Noise Marketing Podcast.
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Episode highlights
2:14-Having a video on social media means you don’t have to wait your turn.
3:26-Limit the barriers.
4:42-Just start. Just begin and just don’t worry about what the output is until you’ve started.
6:06-That fear, a lot of times of sharing what you’re thinking because you don’t want to necessarily maybe be judged negatively.
6:51-I want to attract people that are attracted to me.
7:05-If the relationship isn’t meant to be it’s not meant to be. It’s not. Especially from a business perspective.
7:22-You know you can identify people that are your green lights they give you energy.
8:04-Every potential client who comes along is not going to be an ideal fit.
9:19-Help entrepreneurs, business owners leverage their greatest asset and take care of the greatest asset which is their employees.
10:19-I want to start doing something a little bit more proactive and helping companies take care of themselves and their employees by introducing corporate wellness strategies.
10:36-Employee benefits really should be a seven lane highway rather than just a single lane highway.
11:20-Creating a sense of community at work.
12:06-Take a break and go do something at work together that’s fun.
13:31-Walking is fantastic.
14:20-Try to think about what was a priority for the right kind of customer out of there.
15:02-One of the biggest costs associated with the business is turnover.
15:49-No one can do you better than you.
15:58-My strategy really was just to be myself and I did some thinking about who am i.
16:23-When you move into something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s a fascinating.
17:26-Trigger. Very Important.
18:28-If I can get it and go for a walk I can do my work.
20:08-Realizing it has given me the ability to learn that I can apply this experience to other aspects in my life where I lose the trigger to do the right thing in whatever I want to do.
21:49-Having these types of conversations, they’re energizing.
22:42-You’re not going to just talk about your business that’s kind of boring. People kind of want to get to know you.
22:56-We all have to take steps to get better.
23:36-Get over yourself and just do it.
23:48-The first step really is just record it.
24:28-The goal should not be to become overly attached to the outcome at the beginning. Condition your mind towards a different way of thinking.
25:04-Once you come out the other side of the hedge, you learn to find out that was fun.
27:45-You think because this is awful it must also be time-consuming, right? But it’s not
29:27-Practice recording yourself.
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Jaeson: So, I have Brad Way here and I’m really interested to be talking to Brad because it’s always interesting when you seen someone who starts doing something that’s so far you haven’t have the guts to do yourself and somewhere inside of you understands that this is something that I’m probably gonna have to do someday. And the minute Brad doing it. We’re talking about video blogging or vlogging and I’m interested in understanding how you got from just trying to see someone else doing it and then getting up the courage to dig in and start producing it yourself. So, when did you start thinking about this?
Brad: I guess it would’ve been January maybe of last year, maybe give or take a month or two. And started watching people who were pretty active in that space and I’m very interested in networking and I want to grow my personal brand. Also, my blogging has been done mostly on my personal side of things. And I just thought: “Oh! What a great way to leverage social media on a daily basis. That’s the consistency I was at for some time. By actually doing the vlog and in trying to connect with people just like I love to do when I move in the physical networking space that’s so many of us do in business.
Jaeson: Brad and I belong to the Kingston sales marketing Club. And it’s always a lot of fun to get in front of a few people. And I get to meet new people and of course having a video on social media means you don’t have to wait your turn. You just stick there, otherwise it’s every six months or so.
Brad: The consistency is much higher and we’re all on social media for the most part daily so it’s just a way to connect with people on a more frequent basis
Jaeson: So, Brad’s not superhuman. And so there was a little gap there between his original lightbulb moment where he realized he needed to do that. So how would it take you to get there?
Brad: You know, I guess what went into a whole was a whole lots of things and the reasons why I ended up pulling the trigger. But it’s been said before once I made the decision it was done. It just took me a while to get to that point. And you know that was probably you know a couple of weeks really, I mean it was “hey I should do this” but that’s not really, that’s not a decision I think “I gotta I shoulda I coulda”.
Jaeson: I take that back. Brad is superhuman. I’ve got two weeks to go from concept to reality.
Brad: Yeah, because the biggest thing that I did was I wanted to limit the barriers. And so I did a lot of personal growth last year. I’m still obviously in that, that’s really important to me. We sort of continuum, it’s continuous. But one of my limiting factors was always trying to it make perfect.
Jaeson: Okay, what do you mean by that?
Brad: Well, needing a tripod or needing an actual camera or having a lapel mic or having us right stuff. I just said: “let’s just start and I’ll figure it out”. So that’s not the way I’ve always been. So that was probably the biggest thing is I subscribed to a fellow that isn’t you know, what’s the right word. Diplomatic in his approach. And he just said you know, just start in his name’s Gary Vaynerchuk. And you either like them or hate them and most times everybody starts off and the realm of hating them. He’s pretty direct. He’s telling us all the things that we maybe don’t want to hear. But if you’re in the right frame of mind you’re like “yeah, he’s right.”. So, he was instrumental just because of what he was doing. He’s very motivational but that concept of: just start. Just begin and just don’t worry about what the output is until you’ve started. And then you can start taking steps and getting better.
Jaeson: That’s it. Yeah. And I’m, I think it’s true of all the video blogs that I follow they all at some point will say: “Go back to my first video.” And they’re nasty, right?
Brad: They’re nasty. Not only because of obviously the equipment, right? And quite frankly, obviously our phones are capable doing so much they’re way better than you know they grew up in the 80s and you think about the stuff that came out. Late eighties and nineties you know just wasn’t possible but I mean you can. Yeah I’m getting ridiculous right?
Jaeson: Right, you get stunned a giraffe like this.
Brad: So yeah, the capability of our phones is fantastic and just get it going.
Jaeson: So a low barrier of entry when it comes to the technology.
Brad: That’s right, there’s low to none because the majority of us have phones and to your point of “you can take a look at my first videos” you know it wasn’t just obviously that barrier of the technology, it was your comfort in front of the camera but that bevels people back. That fear. That fears a lot of times of sharing what you’re thinking because you don’t want to necessarily maybe be judged negatively and that’s super. So what I found out is most people don’t give a and so if I know that even if they don’t necessarily agree with you that they’re not gonna. They don’t not like you anymore. They watch the next one.
[ctt template=”11″ link=”8o0qQ” via=”no” ]That fear, a lot of times of sharing what you’re thinking because you don’t want to necessarily maybe be judged negatively.-Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: There’s kind of a suspicion when you meet someone else that they’re probably not a clone of you. There’s you kind of hope that they’re enough like you. That there will be some basis for a relationship you know carbon-based life-form may or may not have reproduced in the past well you know.
Brad: The other thing for me is I want to attract people that are attracted to me. And what I mean by that is I’m not afraid that Jason Tanner doesn’t like me because I put something out there that he doesn’t like. And that if the relationship isn’t meant to be it’s not meant to be, it’s not. Especially from a business perspective that turns into a red light. And I shared with me a couple of years ago, the green light, yellow light, red light kind of idea. You know you can identify people that are your green lights they give you energy etc. And you want to attract those like people into your to your world.
Jaeson: That makes a lot of sense and I think in studying sales myself that people that are only who are interested in having a relationship with anybody with a strong pulse. Provides them with eye contact. Those people are terrified.
Brad: It is and it’s not fun. It’s just not fun. And I’m not interested. Especially in my personal life or in my business life. And attracting people that it’s hard work it really shouldn’t be.
Jaeson: Yeah. You know, it doesn’t take you long in a business to realize that every potential client who comes along is not going to be an ideal fit.
Brad: Yeah and in Reverse too. It’s not just it’s it’s symbiotic I mean and you’re not the right fit for that and that’s good. It means that there’s space and room up there for multiple Me’s or people in this space that I plan. And that’s great.
Jaeson: Absolutely. That’s really liberating and it takes the pressure off. You don’t have to be forget it as a comedian you said I gotta be me because otherwise I’d have to get all new clothes. So that’s great. So let’s get down to the mean potatoes here. So how did you pick a topic for your videos? First of all you know you sell like literally make your money with.. remind me okay?
Brad: Okay, you know historically we’ve been employed benefit consultants and we’ve played that in that space predominantly still but we recently went through a rebranding and vision and mission statements and we’re really leaning into the corporate law. No space and really wanting to help entrepreneurs, business owners leverage their greatest asset and take care of the greatest asset which is their employees. So that’s where Flex Ben is. And the reason why I actually started my blog selfishly, there’s lots of reasons from the software side and but I really love connecting with people. I love connecting with entrepreneurs. They’re similar, I mean we’re not complete carbon copies but there’s some similar DNA there and I love seeing people at their best. So by doing the corporate wellness thing that was a kind of epiphany for me I’m like geez you know the insurance markets, traditionally a reactive type of benefit. Right? You get work you can use your insurance.
Jaeson: And you don’t necessarily think about it unless something bad happens.
Brad: Yeah and so that’s great we need that. But to feel Brad wake up I needed to. I want to start doing something a little bit more proactive and helping companies take care of themselves and their employees by introducing corporate wellness strategies.
Jaeson: So, kind of a holistic approach to just being…
Brad: Yes just being employee benefits really should be a seven lane highway rather than just a single lane highway with a health and dental traditional benefits. It really should be like driving down you know the 401 in Toronto opposed to here and happening there should be a wider conversation more comprehensive. An approach was I mean so taking in whatever aspects then so taking in obviously the well-being so financial well-being of people what we just recently had a thing roundtable discussion about wellness with a handful of business leaders in this area and this the work community came up a lot so creating a sense of community at work you know I recently watched a year one year other podcasts and that individual just expressed the the feeling that they have at work. And that people love to come into work. And I think that’s part of any businesses’ job is to create that space. And so we can do that by doing the whole host of things and it needs to come from that the leadership but with the connection to the ground up to and involving that in your people and what they want to see. So you know some of the ideas that have been shared. Reset that work you know. Take a break and go do something at work together that’s fun.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”UfUm3″ via=”no” ]Employee benefits really should be a seven lane highway rather than just a single lane highway.-Brad Way[/ctt][ctt template=”10″ link=”gN7h1″ via=”no” ]Take a break and go do something at work together that’s fun. -Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: What a lovely concept. So there was nothing that made my heart race more than even the work yeah just the word recess reasons rather we’re gonna take recess now great sounds like something I’m gonna have to wear a cast later because I had a break. Yeah whereas recess yeah.
Brad: It is nice. and it’s not applicable to every business environment you can’t do certain things obviously. And that’s why people like me will be employed in in-service because you need to have these types of conversations and you can’t just apply a cookie cutter approach to everybody. But this isn’t complicated you know, we just want to help people, coach you to that next step. And so let’s go back to your original question of why I started my blog which was wellness is a broad topic and I’ve done a particularly good job in several areas of my own personal wellness and well-being. But one of the areas that haven’t done very well is around this area. Very easy when I was younger. Well, not all of us that’s many of us. So I started my vlog called de Lesseps and I was just sharing my journey in my thoughts and that’s where it came from and that’s what I love to do because I get to I found out that walking is fantastic. I’m not very stressed but it’s a fantastic stress relief even if you don’t think your stressed. It was a great way to start my morning because it cleared my mind and I could think about business or I could think about what’s on the day’s list of things to do. And it also filled me with a sense of purpose because I started to get some feedback from people both directly on social media through like, a public response or privately. And you know, I like that kind of thing. I mean I like making a difference in people. So that’s where I came from.
Jaeson: Yeah, that’s great. And so at a high level, if I’m reading you correctly what you did was you try to think about what was a priority for the right kind of customer out of there. So if there’s a corporate customer who’s trying to create an environment of wellness and employee retention which of course speaks to the continuity of service if you have people leaving every six months because they’re miserable it really really affects you know.
Brad: It has a huge cost to the corporation, right?
Jaeson: Right. And they remind that your customers start to feel a little bit jangled because they’re dealing with someone different every time.
Brad: Yeah the cost is, sometimes you need to do some thinking about it obviously but I mean that’s the one of the biggest costs associated with the business is turnover or being sick. So having a proper wellness program can help you know how to do that but you know getting back to the kind of the marketing and why it was what it was chosen because I know that’s primarily what we want to talk about it now flex Ben and what they’re doing specifically. But you know why did I choose to start talking about and do daily steps and kind of bridge the gap to them, for people to get to know me. And now that was I guess that’s really the reason is the networking side of things. I thought you know, first of all Brad, no one can do you better than you, right? And I think that’s all all of our greatest assets as long as we play a team. So my strategy really was just to be myself and they did some thinking about who who am i. And it’s harder because I think, we all think we know. Until you start really feeling back some layers of who we are and I’m still that’s still a process. I’m just deeper than where I was.
Jaeson: And when you move into something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s a fascinating exercise and self-confrontation? Isn’t it? Where you go: I thought I could do this. I always thought of myself as a sports car attorney though I’m a Jeep, you know.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”a2flz” via=”no” ]When you move into something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s a fascinating.-Jaeson Tanner[/ctt]Brad: And then that’s exhilarating and liberating once you really embrace it in.
Jaeson: Yeah that’s amazing. So on top of broadening your effectiveness as a communicator when you’re filling your real need to an audience that just happens to also need the other things that you sell, you’re also confronting yourself and it’s a tremendous personal growth opportunity.
Brad: Absolutely and we’re still in this journey. I started this vlog but I’ve unfortunately stopped the vlog because in the winter it was very difficult for me to do the trigger which was me actually walking. Yes very important. Well I don’t, I think we could probably talk about it rather than explain it. But I mean for me yeah you know I realized how important triggers were or routines. I mean we all focus on our kids by 7:30 it’s witching hour 8:30. That’s no different than what we are right? You know when we were such a different species you know. For me the getting up in the morning and go for a walk was the time that I had first of all and also the trigger to share it was when I was clearest and most actually excited to do it. So finding that is kind of important I think. Hacking a life is a term that you here to fill things in. That’s one of my life hacks, is that if I can get it and go for a walk I can do my work.
Jaeson: Right. I was watching a video series this morning about designing habits and the guy I was talking about. First of all recognizing strong Keystone habits and then picking one and then picking an ideal trigger. This is all very interesting because there’s such an implicit purposefulness about the approach. You say one way I want it to be automatic and easy to do the right thing. You start from there whatever it happens to be and then tie it to something that is already automatic and easy. Whatever it happens to turn, it’s so fascinating I suppose we all have things like that in our lives that we kind of trailer to – a new habit that we’re gonna spire to have. So it went off the rails for you a little bit when your trigger disappeared.
Brad: When my trigger disappears and I realize what I need to do is find some new triggers because I think winter is coming again next year. So I mean my option is to move to Florida which I’d love to do. That’s the plan but it’s probably not realistic, it’s probably not probable. It is possible. So we’ll just put that on the vision board but I need to find some triggers for the winter time. And you know I’m not beating myself up about it. I think realizing it has given me the ability to learn that I can apply this experience to other aspects in my life where I lose the trigger to do the right thing in whatever I want to do.
Jaeson: I’ve always been tempted to find someone like me which is a big problem and then have kind of a habit or aspiration pact where you check in with each other every so often sort of the cycle of what do they call that.. but you just kind of accountability person. Right?
Brad: I think I mean a lot of us talk about that in terms of goals like sales. Sometimes that’s a little scary for people but I think more fun is actually to probably do the the personality not traits but what was the right word the you know the habit-forming disciplinary things that just make you feel good.
Jaeson: You’re much further ahead I’ve learned trying to come up with a way of doing it on your own with an anchor or like a tribute but something that’s durable and persistent. Then trying to find someone like you because I found and I tried this on like five or six people. We have good friends around us. You know, people who really know me and scares the scare devil of me.
Brad: I think I mean anytime you put like that word accountability there that is absolutely offsetting. But you know what? I find it really great Jaeson is that having these types of conversations, they’re energizing and if you can find a handful of people that you can have these types of conversation where there’s no judging, there’s just conversation of sharing stories it’s amazing.
Jaeson: Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed it myself. So you have this, there’s two things that you’re doing with your videos, right? One is you are explicitly teaching people about something that is valuable to them.
Brad: Yeah. I mean my videos in the daily steps really was just a personal vlog of what I’m doing, personally. And I would drift in terms of I mean my business is also a part of me but just like in any networking setting you’re not going to just talk about your business that’s kind of boring. People kind of want to get to know you. And so by actually doing the vlog I was kind of walking the walk, saying listen we all have to take steps to get better. My area is probably different than yours but you might identify with my area. Maybe you don’t. But not to be overwhelmed by the end goal but just to take you know one bite at a time. You can’t even elfin the day great that it comes back to me all the time. It’s just gone by that time and I’m very much it’s just one step at a time. So that’s what the blog is about, sorry.
Jaeson: Okay. So what advice would you give someone who is completely on the fence about starting one of these things.
Brad: Get over yourself and just do it. The great thing with this technology is that you can record it and never push it up to anybody. But the first step really is just record it. You don’t have to ship it. How many things do you think have been created that you’ve never seen before, by Microsoft or any company. Imagine. This sucks, yeah nice try. Yeah you know, and then you ship the one that you feel a little bit more comfortable. So I would say, just get started. Take a step and do as good as you can. Like I mean that’s kind of my slogan is. Do you? You know, I think far too often or not and that’s one it becomes most difficult.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”6ff4w” via=”no” ]Get over yourself and just do it.-Brad Way [/ctt]Jaeson: Then thinking too that the the goal should not be to become overly attached to the outcome at the beginning. The exercise should be to condition your mind towards a different way of thinking and sometimes you have to do some mental off-roading because we really stick to our own Street, our own neighborhoods and streets mentally. And if we’re gonna crash through the bushes with our mental aTV or whatever we’re driving, it’s painful. Right? We’re gonna dent up the car and it’s gonna be a mess. But that’s the exercise. We’re building new roads.
Brad: Once you come out the other side of the hedge, you learn to find out that was fun. Right? Like that was shorter than it would be. So I mean yeah you’re gonna get a few bruises along the way but you did everything you’ve done in life. You’re not here because it’s been smooth all the time. So kind of look forward to the next failure. It sounds awful in some ways but once you get to the point where you’ve had a few successes as a result of going through some failures, that’s just part of the process. It’s awful to saying all that kind of stuff but it’s true it’s just is.
[ctt template=”5″ link=”EH156″ via=”no” ]Once you come out the other side of the hedge, you learn to find out that was fun.-Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: And the other thing, if this helps as a motivator to people who are watching is that if you become the kind of person who figures out how to push past your own resistance,it looks like witchcraft to anyone who hasn’t been able to do it yet. And it will annoy them. First of all because they’re watching you take flight and do something that they haven’t able to do themselves. And it’s just a great way. It is deceptively simple to gain respect of other people in your in your space.
Brad: Yeah. It’s silly how easy things really are but how hard we make them to be. Like not saying that everything that I suppose is easy but it’s not hard either. The physicality of a task is mostly out there. And you learn a lot about yourself by pushing yourself to those things. Like my growth as a result of trying to grow has been better. That’s part of the process.
Jaeson: You know what I’ve been doing lately which is interesting because of the simplicity of it, how powerful it is. All of the jobs on my list I do every day that I have to do and that are important and that I hate, I take up a stopwatch and I tell them how long they actually take. And I find they actually represented in much smaller…
Brad: Yeah. The ratio in your head is much bigger. Right? I know for sure just hit them down.
Jaeson: Have you ever heard of the homunculus? No? It’s a visual arts term and what it is is it’s a face and there’s the parts of the face that the body or the the mind think they’re most important have been exaggerated. So like the lips are really really big and the eyes are huge and those are small and it’s all those if you look it up online now it also means a person who’s small and perfectly proportioned but it can also mean this other thing. But I think the egregiousness of a task as well we’re kind of thinking about it has kind of a homunculus effect too. You think because this is awful it must also be time-consuming, right? But it’s not and it goes for this stuff too. It feels like it’s going to be maybe the first or second one’s going to take you 16 hours to put it all together and then the software but the next one is going to take you two hours.
Brad: Yeah it just gets easier and it spawns into multiple other things that you may want to do within your business. You know this is a personal slash business exercise that I’ve been doing this vlog but as a result I started to do more videos. Not blog per se but videos for four flex vent directly and that just becomes comfortable because you start to realize you just comfortable of the process. Hearing your own voice for the first time it’s crazy and even even even as you get older but you know what’s weird now? When I listen to my I know my own voice of what you hear now okay it’s not so shocking anymore like oh that’s me oh geez that’s right like that’s the first experience that you typically have when you’re a kid or if you’re an adult and you really haven’t listened to your own voice playback on something. But now it’s like yeah that’s me right it’s not like what did I have to say.
Jaeson: That’s something that I haven’t thought of. But Zig Ziglar in his books he recommends that because in sales you’re always trying to improve the quality of how you come across. You should practice recording yourself and that was probably written back in the heyday of VHS beta. So they weren’t talking about that necessarily but having an honest perception of how you sound so another benefit those of us who are all of us are in sales in some way we should have an honest picture of how it looked like.
Brad: Yeah I never really thought about it like that but sure there’s that benefit to doing it.
Jaeson: Absolutely! Fantastic! I really appreciate you spending the time with me. Where can people get a hold of you?
Brad: Geez! Whole host of, I love social media and I love to connect on social media. So you can reach out to me Brad Way on Facebook and I think it’s either Brad or Bradley on Instagram, Twitter, snapchat. Snapchat it’s real fun so if you want to make my day send me a snap. And from a corporate world [email protected] and you can reach up to me that way and then our social media for flexBen as well if you’re interested in the wellness space both as a person that’s in wellness or you own a business that’s interested in having that conversation. You can reach out to us on our social media directly.
Jaeson: Fantastic. This is great and what I really need right now. Thank you.
This has been the zero noise marketing show connecting with the right prospects in an authentic way doesn’t have to be complicated. If you think authentic zero noise marketing might be right for your business find out for sure by contacting us for a freeconsultation session. We can be reached at 613-379-3051. You might be eligible for a complimentary test campaign. I’m Jason Tanner. Thanks for tuning in.
Brad: I guess it would’ve been January maybe of last year, maybe give or take a month or two. And started watching people who were pretty active in that space and I’m very interested in networking and I want to grow my personal brand. Also, my blogging has been done mostly on my personal side of things. And I just thought: “Oh! What a great way to leverage social media on a daily basis. That’s the consistency I was at for some time. By actually doing the vlog and in trying to connect with people just like I love to do when I move in the physical networking space that’s so many of us do in business.
Jaeson: Brad and I belong to the Kingston sales marketing Club. And it’s always a lot of fun to get in front of a few people. And I get to meet new people and of course having a video on social media means you don’t have to wait your turn. You just stick there, otherwise it’s every six months or so.
Brad: The consistency is much higher and we’re all on social media for the most part daily so it’s just a way to connect with people on a more frequent basis
Jaeson: So, Brad’s not superhuman. And so there was a little gap there between his original lightbulb moment where he realized he needed to do that. So how would it take you to get there?
Brad: You know, I guess what went into a whole was a whole lots of things and the reasons why I ended up pulling the trigger. But it’s been said before once I made the decision it was done. It just took me a while to get to that point. And you know that was probably you know a couple of weeks really, I mean it was “hey I should do this” but that’s not really, that’s not a decision I think “I gotta I shoulda I coulda”.
Jaeson: I take that back. Brad is superhuman. I’ve got two weeks to go from concept to reality.
Brad: Yeah, because the biggest thing that I did was I wanted to limit the barriers. And so I did a lot of personal growth last year. I’m still obviously in that, that’s really important to me. We sort of continuum, it’s continuous. But one of my limiting factors was always trying to it make perfect.
Jaeson: Okay, what do you mean by that?
Brad: Well, needing a tripod or needing an actual camera or having a lapel mic or having us right stuff. I just said: “let’s just start and I’ll figure it out”. So that’s not the way I’ve always been. So that was probably the biggest thing is I subscribed to a fellow that isn’t you know, what’s the right word. Diplomatic in his approach. And he just said you know, just start in his name’s Gary Vaynerchuk. And you either like them or hate them and most times everybody starts off and the realm of hating them. He’s pretty direct. He’s telling us all the things that we maybe don’t want to hear. But if you’re in the right frame of mind you’re like “yeah, he’s right.”. So, he was instrumental just because of what he was doing. He’s very motivational but that concept of: just start. Just begin and just don’t worry about what the output is until you’ve started. And then you can start taking steps and getting better.
Jaeson: That’s it. Yeah. And I’m, I think it’s true of all the video blogs that I follow they all at some point will say: “Go back to my first video.” And they’re nasty, right?
Brad: They’re nasty. Not only because of obviously the equipment, right? And quite frankly, obviously our phones are capable doing so much they’re way better than you know they grew up in the 80s and you think about the stuff that came out. Late eighties and nineties you know just wasn’t possible but I mean you can. Yeah I’m getting ridiculous right?
Jaeson: Right, you get stunned a giraffe like this.
Brad: So yeah, the capability of our phones is fantastic and just get it going.
Jaeson: So a low barrier of entry when it comes to the technology.
Brad: That’s right, there’s low to none because the majority of us have phones and to your point of “you can take a look at my first videos” you know it wasn’t just obviously that barrier of the technology, it was your comfort in front of the camera but that bevels people back. That fear. That fears a lot of times of sharing what you’re thinking because you don’t want to necessarily maybe be judged negatively and that’s super. So what I found out is most people don’t give a and so if I know that even if they don’t necessarily agree with you that they’re not gonna. They don’t not like you anymore. They watch the next one.
[ctt template=”11″ link=”8o0qQ” via=”no” ]That fear, a lot of times of sharing what you’re thinking because you don’t want to necessarily maybe be judged negatively.-Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: There’s kind of a suspicion when you meet someone else that they’re probably not a clone of you. There’s you kind of hope that they’re enough like you. That there will be some basis for a relationship you know carbon-based life-form may or may not have reproduced in the past well you know.
Brad: The other thing for me is I want to attract people that are attracted to me. And what I mean by that is I’m not afraid that Jason Tanner doesn’t like me because I put something out there that he doesn’t like. And that if the relationship isn’t meant to be it’s not meant to be, it’s not. Especially from a business perspective that turns into a red light. And I shared with me a couple of years ago, the green light, yellow light, red light kind of idea. You know you can identify people that are your green lights they give you energy etc. And you want to attract those like people into your to your world.
Jaeson: That makes a lot of sense and I think in studying sales myself that people that are only who are interested in having a relationship with anybody with a strong pulse. Provides them with eye contact. Those people are terrified.
Brad: It is and it’s not fun. It’s just not fun. And I’m not interested. Especially in my personal life or in my business life. And attracting people that it’s hard work it really shouldn’t be.
Jaeson: Yeah. You know, it doesn’t take you long in a business to realize that every potential client who comes along is not going to be an ideal fit.
Brad: Yeah and in Reverse too. It’s not just it’s it’s symbiotic I mean and you’re not the right fit for that and that’s good. It means that there’s space and room up there for multiple Me’s or people in this space that I plan. And that’s great.
Jaeson: Absolutely. That’s really liberating and it takes the pressure off. You don’t have to be forget it as a comedian you said I gotta be me because otherwise I’d have to get all new clothes. So that’s great. So let’s get down to the mean potatoes here. So how did you pick a topic for your videos? First of all you know you sell like literally make your money with.. remind me okay?
Brad: Okay, you know historically we’ve been employed benefit consultants and we’ve played that in that space predominantly still but we recently went through a rebranding and vision and mission statements and we’re really leaning into the corporate law. No space and really wanting to help entrepreneurs, business owners leverage their greatest asset and take care of the greatest asset which is their employees. So that’s where Flex Ben is. And the reason why I actually started my blog selfishly, there’s lots of reasons from the software side and but I really love connecting with people. I love connecting with entrepreneurs. They’re similar, I mean we’re not complete carbon copies but there’s some similar DNA there and I love seeing people at their best. So by doing the corporate wellness thing that was a kind of epiphany for me I’m like geez you know the insurance markets, traditionally a reactive type of benefit. Right? You get work you can use your insurance.
Jaeson: And you don’t necessarily think about it unless something bad happens.
Brad: Yeah and so that’s great we need that. But to feel Brad wake up I needed to. I want to start doing something a little bit more proactive and helping companies take care of themselves and their employees by introducing corporate wellness strategies.
Jaeson: So, kind of a holistic approach to just being…
Brad: Yes just being employee benefits really should be a seven lane highway rather than just a single lane highway with a health and dental traditional benefits. It really should be like driving down you know the 401 in Toronto opposed to here and happening there should be a wider conversation more comprehensive. An approach was I mean so taking in whatever aspects then so taking in obviously the well-being so financial well-being of people what we just recently had a thing roundtable discussion about wellness with a handful of business leaders in this area and this the work community came up a lot so creating a sense of community at work you know I recently watched a year one year other podcasts and that individual just expressed the the feeling that they have at work. And that people love to come into work. And I think that’s part of any businesses’ job is to create that space. And so we can do that by doing the whole host of things and it needs to come from that the leadership but with the connection to the ground up to and involving that in your people and what they want to see. So you know some of the ideas that have been shared. Reset that work you know. Take a break and go do something at work together that’s fun.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”UfUm3″ via=”no” ]Employee benefits really should be a seven lane highway rather than just a single lane highway.-Brad Way[/ctt][ctt template=”10″ link=”gN7h1″ via=”no” ]Take a break and go do something at work together that’s fun. -Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: What a lovely concept. So there was nothing that made my heart race more than even the work yeah just the word recess reasons rather we’re gonna take recess now great sounds like something I’m gonna have to wear a cast later because I had a break. Yeah whereas recess yeah.
Brad: It is nice. and it’s not applicable to every business environment you can’t do certain things obviously. And that’s why people like me will be employed in in-service because you need to have these types of conversations and you can’t just apply a cookie cutter approach to everybody. But this isn’t complicated you know, we just want to help people, coach you to that next step. And so let’s go back to your original question of why I started my blog which was wellness is a broad topic and I’ve done a particularly good job in several areas of my own personal wellness and well-being. But one of the areas that haven’t done very well is around this area. Very easy when I was younger. Well, not all of us that’s many of us. So I started my vlog called de Lesseps and I was just sharing my journey in my thoughts and that’s where it came from and that’s what I love to do because I get to I found out that walking is fantastic. I’m not very stressed but it’s a fantastic stress relief even if you don’t think your stressed. It was a great way to start my morning because it cleared my mind and I could think about business or I could think about what’s on the day’s list of things to do. And it also filled me with a sense of purpose because I started to get some feedback from people both directly on social media through like, a public response or privately. And you know, I like that kind of thing. I mean I like making a difference in people. So that’s where I came from.
Jaeson: Yeah, that’s great. And so at a high level, if I’m reading you correctly what you did was you try to think about what was a priority for the right kind of customer out of there. So if there’s a corporate customer who’s trying to create an environment of wellness and employee retention which of course speaks to the continuity of service if you have people leaving every six months because they’re miserable it really really affects you know.
Brad: It has a huge cost to the corporation, right?
Jaeson: Right. And they remind that your customers start to feel a little bit jangled because they’re dealing with someone different every time.
Brad: Yeah the cost is, sometimes you need to do some thinking about it obviously but I mean that’s the one of the biggest costs associated with the business is turnover or being sick. So having a proper wellness program can help you know how to do that but you know getting back to the kind of the marketing and why it was what it was chosen because I know that’s primarily what we want to talk about it now flex Ben and what they’re doing specifically. But you know why did I choose to start talking about and do daily steps and kind of bridge the gap to them, for people to get to know me. And now that was I guess that’s really the reason is the networking side of things. I thought you know, first of all Brad, no one can do you better than you, right? And I think that’s all all of our greatest assets as long as we play a team. So my strategy really was just to be myself and they did some thinking about who who am i. And it’s harder because I think, we all think we know. Until you start really feeling back some layers of who we are and I’m still that’s still a process. I’m just deeper than where I was.
Jaeson: And when you move into something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s a fascinating exercise and self-confrontation? Isn’t it? Where you go: I thought I could do this. I always thought of myself as a sports car attorney though I’m a Jeep, you know.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”a2flz” via=”no” ]When you move into something that makes you uncomfortable, it’s a fascinating.-Jaeson Tanner[/ctt]Brad: And then that’s exhilarating and liberating once you really embrace it in.
Jaeson: Yeah that’s amazing. So on top of broadening your effectiveness as a communicator when you’re filling your real need to an audience that just happens to also need the other things that you sell, you’re also confronting yourself and it’s a tremendous personal growth opportunity.
Brad: Absolutely and we’re still in this journey. I started this vlog but I’ve unfortunately stopped the vlog because in the winter it was very difficult for me to do the trigger which was me actually walking. Yes very important. Well I don’t, I think we could probably talk about it rather than explain it. But I mean for me yeah you know I realized how important triggers were or routines. I mean we all focus on our kids by 7:30 it’s witching hour 8:30. That’s no different than what we are right? You know when we were such a different species you know. For me the getting up in the morning and go for a walk was the time that I had first of all and also the trigger to share it was when I was clearest and most actually excited to do it. So finding that is kind of important I think. Hacking a life is a term that you here to fill things in. That’s one of my life hacks, is that if I can get it and go for a walk I can do my work.
Jaeson: Right. I was watching a video series this morning about designing habits and the guy I was talking about. First of all recognizing strong Keystone habits and then picking one and then picking an ideal trigger. This is all very interesting because there’s such an implicit purposefulness about the approach. You say one way I want it to be automatic and easy to do the right thing. You start from there whatever it happens to be and then tie it to something that is already automatic and easy. Whatever it happens to turn, it’s so fascinating I suppose we all have things like that in our lives that we kind of trailer to – a new habit that we’re gonna spire to have. So it went off the rails for you a little bit when your trigger disappeared.
Brad: When my trigger disappears and I realize what I need to do is find some new triggers because I think winter is coming again next year. So I mean my option is to move to Florida which I’d love to do. That’s the plan but it’s probably not realistic, it’s probably not probable. It is possible. So we’ll just put that on the vision board but I need to find some triggers for the winter time. And you know I’m not beating myself up about it. I think realizing it has given me the ability to learn that I can apply this experience to other aspects in my life where I lose the trigger to do the right thing in whatever I want to do.
Jaeson: I’ve always been tempted to find someone like me which is a big problem and then have kind of a habit or aspiration pact where you check in with each other every so often sort of the cycle of what do they call that.. but you just kind of accountability person. Right?
Brad: I think I mean a lot of us talk about that in terms of goals like sales. Sometimes that’s a little scary for people but I think more fun is actually to probably do the the personality not traits but what was the right word the you know the habit-forming disciplinary things that just make you feel good.
Jaeson: You’re much further ahead I’ve learned trying to come up with a way of doing it on your own with an anchor or like a tribute but something that’s durable and persistent. Then trying to find someone like you because I found and I tried this on like five or six people. We have good friends around us. You know, people who really know me and scares the scare devil of me.
Brad: I think I mean anytime you put like that word accountability there that is absolutely offsetting. But you know what? I find it really great Jaeson is that having these types of conversations, they’re energizing and if you can find a handful of people that you can have these types of conversation where there’s no judging, there’s just conversation of sharing stories it’s amazing.
Jaeson: Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed it myself. So you have this, there’s two things that you’re doing with your videos, right? One is you are explicitly teaching people about something that is valuable to them.
Brad: Yeah. I mean my videos in the daily steps really was just a personal vlog of what I’m doing, personally. And I would drift in terms of I mean my business is also a part of me but just like in any networking setting you’re not going to just talk about your business that’s kind of boring. People kind of want to get to know you. And so by actually doing the vlog I was kind of walking the walk, saying listen we all have to take steps to get better. My area is probably different than yours but you might identify with my area. Maybe you don’t. But not to be overwhelmed by the end goal but just to take you know one bite at a time. You can’t even elfin the day great that it comes back to me all the time. It’s just gone by that time and I’m very much it’s just one step at a time. So that’s what the blog is about, sorry.
Jaeson: Okay. So what advice would you give someone who is completely on the fence about starting one of these things.
Brad: Get over yourself and just do it. The great thing with this technology is that you can record it and never push it up to anybody. But the first step really is just record it. You don’t have to ship it. How many things do you think have been created that you’ve never seen before, by Microsoft or any company. Imagine. This sucks, yeah nice try. Yeah you know, and then you ship the one that you feel a little bit more comfortable. So I would say, just get started. Take a step and do as good as you can. Like I mean that’s kind of my slogan is. Do you? You know, I think far too often or not and that’s one it becomes most difficult.
[ctt template=”8″ link=”6ff4w” via=”no” ]Get over yourself and just do it.-Brad Way [/ctt]Jaeson: Then thinking too that the the goal should not be to become overly attached to the outcome at the beginning. The exercise should be to condition your mind towards a different way of thinking and sometimes you have to do some mental off-roading because we really stick to our own Street, our own neighborhoods and streets mentally. And if we’re gonna crash through the bushes with our mental aTV or whatever we’re driving, it’s painful. Right? We’re gonna dent up the car and it’s gonna be a mess. But that’s the exercise. We’re building new roads.
Brad: Once you come out the other side of the hedge, you learn to find out that was fun. Right? Like that was shorter than it would be. So I mean yeah you’re gonna get a few bruises along the way but you did everything you’ve done in life. You’re not here because it’s been smooth all the time. So kind of look forward to the next failure. It sounds awful in some ways but once you get to the point where you’ve had a few successes as a result of going through some failures, that’s just part of the process. It’s awful to saying all that kind of stuff but it’s true it’s just is.
[ctt template=”5″ link=”EH156″ via=”no” ]Once you come out the other side of the hedge, you learn to find out that was fun.-Brad Way[/ctt]Jaeson: And the other thing, if this helps as a motivator to people who are watching is that if you become the kind of person who figures out how to push past your own resistance,it looks like witchcraft to anyone who hasn’t been able to do it yet. And it will annoy them. First of all because they’re watching you take flight and do something that they haven’t able to do themselves. And it’s just a great way. It is deceptively simple to gain respect of other people in your in your space.
Brad: Yeah. It’s silly how easy things really are but how hard we make them to be. Like not saying that everything that I suppose is easy but it’s not hard either. The physicality of a task is mostly out there. And you learn a lot about yourself by pushing yourself to those things. Like my growth as a result of trying to grow has been better. That’s part of the process.
Jaeson: You know what I’ve been doing lately which is interesting because of the simplicity of it, how powerful it is. All of the jobs on my list I do every day that I have to do and that are important and that I hate, I take up a stopwatch and I tell them how long they actually take. And I find they actually represented in much smaller…
Brad: Yeah. The ratio in your head is much bigger. Right? I know for sure just hit them down.
Jaeson: Have you ever heard of the homunculus? No? It’s a visual arts term and what it is is it’s a face and there’s the parts of the face that the body or the the mind think they’re most important have been exaggerated. So like the lips are really really big and the eyes are huge and those are small and it’s all those if you look it up online now it also means a person who’s small and perfectly proportioned but it can also mean this other thing. But I think the egregiousness of a task as well we’re kind of thinking about it has kind of a homunculus effect too. You think because this is awful it must also be time-consuming, right? But it’s not and it goes for this stuff too. It feels like it’s going to be maybe the first or second one’s going to take you 16 hours to put it all together and then the software but the next one is going to take you two hours.
Brad: Yeah it just gets easier and it spawns into multiple other things that you may want to do within your business. You know this is a personal slash business exercise that I’ve been doing this vlog but as a result I started to do more videos. Not blog per se but videos for four flex vent directly and that just becomes comfortable because you start to realize you just comfortable of the process. Hearing your own voice for the first time it’s crazy and even even even as you get older but you know what’s weird now? When I listen to my I know my own voice of what you hear now okay it’s not so shocking anymore like oh that’s me oh geez that’s right like that’s the first experience that you typically have when you’re a kid or if you’re an adult and you really haven’t listened to your own voice playback on something. But now it’s like yeah that’s me right it’s not like what did I have to say.
Jaeson: That’s something that I haven’t thought of. But Zig Ziglar in his books he recommends that because in sales you’re always trying to improve the quality of how you come across. You should practice recording yourself and that was probably written back in the heyday of VHS beta. So they weren’t talking about that necessarily but having an honest perception of how you sound so another benefit those of us who are all of us are in sales in some way we should have an honest picture of how it looked like.
Brad: Yeah I never really thought about it like that but sure there’s that benefit to doing it.
Jaeson: Absolutely! Fantastic! I really appreciate you spending the time with me. Where can people get a hold of you?
Brad: Geez! Whole host of, I love social media and I love to connect on social media. So you can reach out to me Brad Way on Facebook and I think it’s either Brad or Bradley on Instagram, Twitter, snapchat. Snapchat it’s real fun so if you want to make my day send me a snap. And from a corporate world [email protected] and you can reach up to me that way and then our social media for flexBen as well if you’re interested in the wellness space both as a person that’s in wellness or you own a business that’s interested in having that conversation. You can reach out to us on our social media directly.
Jaeson: Fantastic. This is great and what I really need right now. Thank you.
This has been the zero noise marketing show connecting with the right prospects in an authentic way doesn’t have to be complicated. If you think authentic zero noise marketing might be right for your business find out for sure by contacting us for a freeconsultation session. We can be reached at 613-379-3051. You might be eligible for a complimentary test campaign. I’m Jason Tanner. Thanks for tuning in.
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