Podcasts about when deb

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with tattoo artist Deb Yarian. Deb started tattooing in New York in 1979. Back when tattoo culture was reserved for outsiders, or what Deb calls “carnival people.” The tattoo culture then was predominately male, and women usually found their way into the culture through a man, because men were the gatekeepers. More recently, those barriers have been broken down, making the culture more equitable. Today, Deb and her husband Don own and operate Eagle River Tattoo. Early in Deb's career, her mom told her that she didn't want Deb getting tattoos because she didn't want people to judge her by the way she looked. Deb responded by saying, “If people are going to judge me by the way I look, then those aren't the kind of people I want in my life.” Deb says that the difference between tattooers today and tattooers in the past is that their journey is different. When Deb entered the scene, there was a lot of inequality and even violence. Deb has a history with domestic violence. One that she tries to talk about as openly and honestly as possible. She talks about those seedier origins of the tattoo culture, the sanctity of the tattoo shop and how people with tattoos need to be responsible for their actions if they don't want to be mislabeled.

Deb & Kev, and Kev in particular, have a great time talking about some great topics this week on the podcast, including;- When Deb decided to stop keeping up with mainstream music- Giving a highly anticipated Bjorn update- How employers and employees can handle the COVID vaccination process- Kev gives Deb some new question during Dear Debbie- They both have amusing Thankfuls this week- And Kev takes the reigns for dinner tonightAs always, special thanks to Lauren Taylor for the episode art work and Gwyneth Galvin and BenSound www.bensound.com for providing the voiceover and music for the intro and outro!

Deb and Darrin are back! Season 2 kicks off with discussion about Deb's new book- Independence, a memoir, which was just published. When Deb's DNA reveals her father is not her biological parent, it sets her on a journey of self-discovery. Deb writes about her childhood with a mother with mental illness, PTSD associated with an abusive upbringing, and how she had to heal and learn to forgive.

In this episode, Cody has a conversation with tattoo artist Deb Yarian. Deb started tattooing in New York in 1979. Back when tattoo culture was reserved for outsiders, or what Deb calls “carnival people.” The tattoo culture then was predominately male, and women usually found their way into the culture through a man, because men were the gatekeepers. More recently, those barriers have been broken down, making the culture more equitable. Today, Deb and her husband Don own and operate Eagle River Tattoo.  Early in Deb’s career, her mom told her that she didn’t want Deb getting tattoos because she didn’t want people to judge her by the way she looked. Deb responded by saying, “If people are going to judge me by the way I look, then those aren’t the kind of people I want in my life.” Deb says that the difference between tattooers today and tattooers in the past is that their journey is different. When Deb entered the scene, there was a lot of inequality and even violence. Deb has a history with domestic violence. One that she tries to talk about as openly and honestly as possible. She talks about those seedier origins of the tattoo culture, the sanctity of the tattoo shop and how people with tattoos need to be responsible for their actions if they don’t want to be mislabeled.

As a bestselling author and keynote speaker, Deb Gabor, CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing, has, herself, become a “brand.” She defines Sol Marketing as a brand-driven, strategy-led marketing firm in the business of creating irrational loyalty. Irrational loyalty means people are indelibly bonded to a brand.  When Deb talks about her agency, she does not list the provided services: she feels marketing services have become commoditized. Instead, she presents a passionate vision of what the future could be. She tells people she is on a million-brand mission – to impact a million brands in her career. She believes that the best brands in the world are truly unique – in why they do what they do. Her goal is to strengthen brands: making businesses more sustainable will up-level communities, and, ultimately, help people.  When the Corona virus hit, Deb's speaking engagements for the next 6 months were cancelled. She is sheltering at home . . . but not sheltering in her mind. The question was: how was she going to generate income when she could no longer speak at face-to-face events? What could she do? How could she help her company? She mobilized her team and made her personal brand a “client” of the agency. “Figure out how this has impacted us,” she told her team, “and then what we need to do.”  Deb referenced an interview with James Stockdale in Jim Collins' book Good to Great. Stockdale was held for 6 years in a Vietnamese POW camp. When asked how he managed to survive, Stockdale explained that he faced the brutal facts of his situation, but also kept up his hope and optimism. Prisoners who were over-optimistic, but refused to face the “brutal facts,” did not do as well. Deb's team identified around eight “brutal facts” about how Deb's brand was impacted by Covid-19. Some issues were solvable, some were not.  The company pivoted and, got Deb back on track in a new direction – creating information products, building online courses, building sales funnels, and building webinar funnels. Deb identified the assets she needed her team to build, established a schedule, and set targeted monthly income goals for the information products, her speaking, and her book sales. Then, taking things a step further, the company prioritized a something new: authority marketing services for professionals, who, like her, were facing the same challenges. The assets her team built for Deb became a product that could help other speakers, authors, experts, coaches, and consultants.  Deb says she has never seen a better opportunity than now for “smart people with expertise that can elevate other people in their own businesses, in their lives – I've never seen a better opportunity for them to share generously that expertise with other people.” She challenges people to think about: “How can I be indispensable to people at this time? How can I share something that I know or that I can do in a way that helps another person?” In reaching out, Deb says “be helpful, be authentic, be true to your brand.” She now spends around 6 hours a day, every day, presenting public or private webinars, and consulting one-on-one with business leaders, marketers, creators, or people with personal brands who are interested in setting up their brands to thrive during these unusual times. Deb can be reached through social media and on her website at: debgabor.com, where Deb is posting thought-provoking webinars that explore a post-Covid world. Deb's books, Branding Is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything and Irrational Loyalty: Building a Brand That Thrives in Turbulent Times are available on Amazon. Transcript Follows:   ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Deb Gabor, CEO and Founder of Sol Marketing based in Austin, Texas. Deb is also a bestselling author and keynote speaker, and I think you're going to enjoy this conversation. Welcome to the podcast, Deb. DEB: Thank you. I'm really glad to be here. ROB: It's fantastic to have you here. Why don't you tell us about Sol Marketing and about your own journey as well into authorship and speaking?  DEB: Right on. I tell people that I'm in the business of creating the condition of irrational loyalty, and when I say irrational loyalty, that's that feeling that you're so indelibly bonded to a brand that you'd feel like you were cheating on it if you were to choose an alternative. It's kind of how I feel about my iPhone, and the weird feeling I get when my friends who have Android phones send me text messages and they show up in green bubbles. I'm so irrationally loyal to i-thingies that even if I would hold a competitor's phone in my hand, I'd feel dirty. So that's the business that I'm in, and how I do that is by running a brand-driven, strategy-led marketing firm. We do all the marketing things, and the reason why people hire us is because they need a good kick in the ass. They're growing rapidly, they have a lot at stake to get it right, they have no time to waste, and they need someone to lead them through the hard work of branding. Is that a good explanation? ROB: That's perfect. How did you come to this positioning? A lot of people talk about what they do, they talk about the nuts and bolts, the details of what they do, and I hear you coming at the conversation from the complete opposite direction. You're coming from a vision of the possible future, a vision of where things are going. How did you arrive at that view that this is how it needs to be? DEB: This is the work that I actually do with my clients, so a little bit of this is the process of eating my own dog food. I firmly believe that the best brands in the world are not just different; they're truly singular and they're unique, and that uniqueness comes from truly why they do what they do. When people talk to me personally and say, “Hey, Deb, what are you obsessed with? What are you working on right now?”, I tell people, I'm on a million-brand mission. Through my career, I want to have impact on a million brands. The reason why that's important is if I can help a brand be a better brand, it helps them create a more sustainable business. More sustainable businesses are great for up-leveling communities and truly helping people. So, I'm really internally motivated, and I'm very, very driven. It's an obsession and a compulsion for me, so I can't really talk about it any other way. The other thing is I work in Austin, Texas. There are 150 other people who do exactly what I do, including a direct competitor whose office is directly across the street from me, and when I'm at my office, at my desk, I look out this gigantic picture window and across the road I see the tombstone with her sign on it, and it drives me absolutely mad. Her services, her functional benefits, the stuff that she does as a company is exactly the same as the stuff that we do as a company, yet we don't compete. We really don't compete for the same clients because the reason that people hire us is vastly different than the reason that people hire her company. So that's one of the reasons why I don't default to the comfortable way of talking about agency business in terms of “here's what we do” because those services have become relatively commoditized. I want people to remember me for what I'm about, and I want people to really understand the specific singular thing they get from us that they can't get from anyone else. That's why I talk about it in terms of “here's the mission I'm on and why I do what I do” and being in the business of irrational loyalty. Also, if I told you “We're a branding and strategy and marketing services firm,” you would be like, “Meh, everybody else is that too.” ROB: Yeah, you definitely hear that a lot, and it's a tremendous visual metaphor to have that nemesis across the street. I find it motivating for a lot of teams to know who the enemy is – not in a jealous way or a competitive way, but in helping you refine and define the mission. You mentioned you're based in Austin, Texas. We were originally supposed to meet up in person at South by Southwest. It's April; South by Southwest is cancelled. It didn't happen. We are sheltering at home. But you, as we were talking about before we started recording, are not sheltering, in your mind. How has your strategy shifted amidst this coronavirus outbreak, amidst this pandemic, amidst some companies pulling back and some accelerating forwards? DEB: I think I shared with you before we got on the interview here that I'm in touch with a lot of business leaders through my personal and business networks, and they fall into two camps right now. There's one – these are the folks that are shuttering everything, they have their thumbs in their mouths, they're rocking back and forth, they're lying on the doormat in front of the front door – they've given up. They're throwing in the towel. Then there are others who are really looking at this through a new lens and practicing the art of the pivot or figuring out, “How this is an opportunity for me to emerge with maybe new offerings, new products, new services and things like that that are going to position me for the long term?” One of the things that I did that I think is going to be really helpful for your listeners is I went back and reread my copy of this great book by Jim Collins called Good to Great. The day that I decided to pick up Good to Great again, I opened up the book and it opened directly to a chapter where there was an interview with James Stockdale. Jim Stockdale was previously a vice presidential candidate, but he was also an admiral and a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. For 6 years, he was in a POW camp. Collins interviewed him for his book and asked him, “How were you able to actually get through that experience relatively unscathed? How did you endure 6 years in a POW camp?” What Stockdale explained was that he was able to maintain hope and optimism in the face of the brutal facts of his reality. He also explained that the people who were in the POW camps who were overly optimistic and refused to face the brutal facts were the ones that didn't fare very well. That's called the Stockdale paradox. I was reading about the Stockdale paradox probably right about the same time that South by Southwest was getting cancelled, and it was really empowering for me because I actually did an exercise with our leadership team where we went back and revisited our core values and our core purpose as an organization, and then we documented all the brutal facts. The brutal facts of the current situation are, personally, I make most of my money as a speaker and an author and a workshop leader, and every single speaking engagement I had scheduled between South by Southwest and the end of July was cancelled, all over the course of about two days. That's a brutal fact. Another brutal fact was I do mostly B2B work in our company, and we had already been seeing some supply chain issues with our clients, making it really difficult to do things like shoot videos of their products. That had started happening back in January, so that was a brutal fact. Another brutal fact was everybody's going to have to work from home, people are going to be less productive, we're going to have connectivity issues. Another brutal fact was I looked at how much per day does it cost to operate my agency, and how much cash runway do I have? How many days of cash runway do I actually have in the bank? And for each of these brutal facts – and there were about eight of them – there were some that I could do something about, and then there were some that I couldn't do something about. But for each of those brutal facts, my leadership team and I acknowledged every one of them, and then we flipped immediately to “What is our response to this brutal fact?” What I'm doing during this time, which gets back to your original question of like “you're not sheltering in your mind,” one of the opportunities that surfaced from really examining these brutal facts was the notion that I'm at home in Austin, Texas for 6 months without anywhere to go. What can I do? How can I help the company? Two things came of that. One of them is that we made a very strong pivot to offering authority marketing services to other speakers and authors and experts and coaches and consultants – people like me – to help them share their expertise without the need for face-to-face events. We had already created a business for me out of this – I'm a client of my own company – and we were offering it to other people. We turned this into a service. I've had a number of conversations with other people who are in my same situation where we're offering these kinds of services, which are like creating information products, building online courses, building sales funnels, building webinar funnels. That was one thing. And then another opportunity that came from that, which is really where I'm not sheltering in my mind – I have never seen a better opportunity for smart people with expertise that can elevate other people in their own businesses in their lives, I've never seen a better opportunity for them to share generously that expertise with other people. I literally have been spending I would say probably 6 hours a day, every day, if I'm not doing a public webinar, I'm doing a private webinar. Or I'm having one-on-one consultations with business leaders or marketers or creators or people with personal brands who are interested in understanding how they can set their brands up to thrive during this time. ROB: I love what you say about uplifting, because even though you could have a disposition towards making the most and really transforming business to thrive in this environment, we all I think still need a little bit of encouragement and uplift from other people for those days when maybe we're not feeling quite as strong about it. We're all going to have a down day here or there. I'm very interested by what you said about authority marketing and focusing there. I think that's a word that has been used and misused. I've seen it misused in such a reductive way as essentially buying a book for yourself. DEB: Yep, exactly. Which actually, I think the people who wrote the book Authority Marketing, the purpose is they wrote a book called Authority Marketing to teach you how to buy a book to do authority marketing. I look at authority marketing in a much more comprehensive way. ROB: And you're providing that service to people who know the difference, too. The people that you're going to work with are people who know how to get a book published, probably. They might change what they're writing right now, but it's not “Help me be famous.” They probably have a brand. They probably have some opportunity. They probably have some skills. But a lot of these folks probably don't have the tools around them the way you do. DEB: Right. I invested significantly over the past couple of years to actually build these things. I'll tell you a quick story about where this all came from. I wrote my first book, called Branding Is Sex: Get Your Customer Laid and Sell the Hell Out of Anything. Yes, I am the person who used both the words “sex” and “laid” in the title of a book. When I wrote that book, it really was part of this compulsion to share that information with as many people as I could. I give away our methodology, my expertise, 30 years of experience and track record in brand strategy – I give that away for the cost of a book. But what I didn't do was connect that back to how I wanted to grow in my own career, how I wanted that to serve my agency business, and how that was going to be the pathway to what my vision is for myself. I wasn't very intentional about it. After that book came out, fortunately for me, because of brand disasters at the hand of such great brands like United Airlines and Pepsi and Uber and Papa John's, lots of other branding dumpster fires that happened, I became the world's resident authority on brand disasters and botched corporate apologies. I became the person who was able to answer all the media's questions about who's handling it well, who's not handling it, what brands should do, what brands can learn. It was really during that time that the second book, Irrational Loyalty, was written, because that book basically wrote itself. I thought, I need to be smarter and more intentional and definitely more thoughtful and strategic about how I want these pieces of content that I've created to serve me in the long term. That's when it became apparent to me that I needed something other than just a book to express my authority, because a book is just one method. I do a lot of public speaking, but I also wanted to share my expertise in other ways so that people could consume it in more actionable methods for them. So I went out and attended a Mastermind of some of the best digital marketers in the world. This is one of those Masterminds you pay $30,000 a year to be a member and then $10,000 an event. Definitely the upper echelon. I happened to be there because I was a speaker, but I got to spend an entire 3 days with people who had 9-figure sales funnels. I thought, all right, these people are selling information products and they're selling a buttload of them. They've created a way to scale their personal brands or their business brands or whatever. I could do that too. I went out and asked all those people, “Can I hire you to build this for me?” They were all like, “No, you can find other people. Go see this person, go see that person.” I started talking to people, and I was interviewing people, and there was no shortage of people who were willing to put me into a sales funnel to sell me a course on how to build a sales funnel. I was like, what the hell? This is ridiculous. So, I mobilized my team, and my personal brand became a client of the agency. I was like, “You guys are going to figure this out. We're going to build all of these assets. We are going to build all of the automated marketing platforms. We're going to tie all of this stuff together, and we're going to build a business for me. Here's a metric, and by this time, in this many months, we're going to be making this much per month revenue off of these information products. I'm also going to do this much in speaking, I'm going to do this much in book sales.” We built a business around it. Over the last year, I had a number of clients coming to me saying, “I want to be you. How do I build that footprint?” I said, “Well, interestingly, we built it internally.” When the current coronavirus situation hit and all the other authors and speakers and experts and coaches and consultants, like me, were like, “Oh my gosh, I'm stuck in front of a computer in my dining room, working over Zoom; how do I impact many, many people?”, I was like, I'm good. I've got stuff. But I also was able to work with the company, and we made a pivot. We made this quick pivot. I said, “We need to really prioritize these authority marketing services.” So that's the story of a pivot. I hope that's helpful to your audience. ROB: I think it's absolutely impressive and resilient, and something to learn from. I think a lot of people strike out to write a book as a hunt for where their expertise is. It seems to me that in particular, the services you're providing require that somebody have an expertise that goes beyond just a book. But if someone's feeling like they really need to have this expertise and this array of services around it, but they're not quite sure where to go, where to focus on their expertise, how do you think about zoning in something that a person can offer that nobody else can offer, but they can't put their finger on it quite yet? DEB: That's an interesting question. That's a question that I've been answering for a lot of people over the past couple of weeks – people like me who are sitting around with a little bit of time to really navel-gaze and pontificate for themselves about where they're going. My recommendation for that is to just ask the question of “How can I be indispensable to someone at this present time?” That's the first question, honestly. I always start everything from a reexamination of my own personal core values and my own core purpose and my mission and my big hairy audacious goal and where I'm going in life. I'm lucky that I have that as a compass. If people are thinking about this and they're like, “What expertise can I share?”, the first place to start is really with, why do you do what you do? Or why are you? It's a very existential question. Simon Sinek's stuff helps with that a lot, too. I recommend that people do some examination of that. But then ask the question, “How can I be indispensable to people at this time? How can I share something that I know or that I can do in a way that helps another person?” If you're looking at creating content and putting content out to the world to share your expertise with only the goal of making money, you will never be able to make money. If you are putting content out in the world because you truly have a message that you need to share with other people because it's going to elevate them in a particular way, it is your job to figure out specifically what you do. I always tell people, just ask the basic – I have these three brand questions. The questions are, “What does it say about a person that they use my brand? What does it say about them?” The second question is, “What is the one thing they get from me that they can't get from anyone else?” And “How can I make my customer or my reader, my listener, my viewer, how can I make my person a hero in his or her own story?” I think that people will find a lot of answers there. In my own experience with not being super intentional about how I'm going to use a book – I'm very intentional now because I have a book and I have another book and I have a speaking business and I have classes, and we're starting up some online courses, I now have a webinar series, all that kind of stuff – the whole purpose of that is to create a community, and create a community that I can engage with and share my expertise with. My goal in my approach of sharing expertise first and not asking for anything in return, my hope is that it's going to elevate a lot of people and make them irrationally loyal to me. Then, when people are in a situation where they're back to buying stuff, they're going to want to buy that stuff from me, or they're going to want to buy that stuff from my company. ROB: Right. I think what you're saying there – it's subtle, but this is not a time, for the most part – unless you're selling surgical masks, this is not a time to be selling for a lot of people, but it is a time to be investing deeply and helping, and sometimes helping – I think you've done some work with startups; a common thing in startup land is a lot of times you'll ask for help, but you get money. If you ask for money, you'll get help. DEB: [laughs] That's true. I have a business where I work with early stage companies, helping them tell their story effectively through their investor pitch. That's something that we always say. You have to treat fundraising like a branding exercise, but the ideal customer that you're going after is an investor, and you have to figure out how you're going to elevate that investor's life. How are you going to give them bragging rights from offering you that kind of help that you're looking for? But you're 100% right. Now is a time to be looking at everything through this lens of helping versus selling. I've been telling everybody this. You really, really have to ask that question of “How can I be indispensable at this time?” There's lots of businesses that we can't use right now. There are lots of things that feel to us that they are maybe luxuries that we shouldn't indulge in right now. As a brand, any kind of brand, you can still help during this time. It's not just like the parent company of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior retooling their factories to go from manufacturing perfumes to making hand sanitizer, or Tito's Vodka here in Austin doing the same. It's also, how can you help people deal with the current situation at hand in a helpful way? Really good example – I'm a skier, and I was super bummed that my season got cut short this year. One of the places that I buy gear from sent me the most delightful email. It acknowledged the current situation, showed real regard for humanity, and it said, “Hey, we're also bummed out that the season got cut short. If you're feeling bad, here's a link to a playlist of your favorite ski porn” – which is a playlist of really fun ski movies on YouTube. And further down in the email, there was a nice feature that you could link to on their website about ski touring – which, for people who are not skiers, that's the process of climbing uphill and skiing down. You don't ride a chairlift; you climb uphill and you ski down. The ski areas are closed, but there's plenty of places to go into the back country. A lot of people need tips and tricks for doing that and doing it in a way that's appropriate for the current pandemic conditions, so how do you still stay safe and ski with a buddy without getting too close? Also, safety – it's avalanche season, all that kind of stuff. Further down in the email, they merchandised, “Here's the best of the 2021 gear that's coming out. Ski season 2020 is over; however, it's never too early to dream.” So it was a light message, and it was not sales-y at all. Then what I loved, at the very bottom of this email, I truly was delighted to see there were the signatures of everybody who works in the store. It was very personal. It was very authentic. It was really sincere. It was totally on brand. It was helpful. They're not selling ski gear right now. People are not going online and buying a $1900 pair of skis and a $700 pair of boots right now. They're just not. However, this brand is going to stay connected not just in my mind, but in my heart. The next time I do need something, I'm going to go to them. Looking at everything from this lens of helping versus selling is what's going to help brands connect in the long term and remain relevant and thrive when this is over – which this will be over. Come hell or high water, it will be over, and people will be back, but nothing will be the same as it was before. ROB: It ties back nicely – it sounds like they even may have asked some of those questions that you asked, of what are the things they can't change. The thing they accepted that they can't change is that people cannot go skiing, and asking people to buy a pair of skis to sit in their closet for next year is not maybe a very good message. I've seen, I'm sure you've seen, I'm sure everybody has seen an unbelievable number of emails from companies about their response to COVID-19, and half of them say, “We're just going to keep being the business that we already are.” That's maybe an innocuous brand fail. But you, being someone who keeps track of some bigger mistakes, what are some bigger mistakes people have made in messaging around this crisis that we can learn from? Not to trash them just to trash them, but to trash them by way of example. DEB: I have something that would be really fun right now, which is this morning, I wrote something that is the perfect COVID-19 email that comes from that brand – I call it the perfect “we're all in this together” email. How many “we're all in this together” emails have you received from brands that you didn't even know you were on their email list? ROB: Oh, uncountable. DEB: Yeah. Let me read you the message. It's entitled, “An important message from our CEO”: “Dear Deb, “You don't ever remember giving us your email, nor do you know how we got a hold of it. You once briefly thought about us 7 years ago; however, we're here for you during these (unprecedented, uncertain, challenging, unsettling, unusual, rapidly evolving) times (pick one). We're keeping everybody safe and monitoring the situation. If you need a new wine rack/sofa table/machete/floor lamp/outdoor fireplace/Aston Martin, we're in this together. “Also, here's a reminder that we're also here for our employees, whom you didn't even realize existed until just now. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody affected by the current health crisis. Just know that (brand that you didn't even know had your email address) is by your side during these tough times. “We're in this together, and I'm on Richard Branson's yacht – “A Brand You Don't Really Know.” That's the big crime right now. During the first week – this was just post-March 11th – everybody was rushing to send out their COVID-19 email. All of them were “a letter from our CEO,” and they were all entitled “We're in this together.” That's my parody of that. Worst is automated marketing. Turn off your freaking automations, people. The day that the WHO announced that we had a global pandemic – and it was also the same day, I believe, that we closed off our borders to people arriving by airplane from most countries in Europe – I got an email from Air Canada asking me, “Hey, don't forget to opt in to get insider information and savings on your next flight!” I also received an email from another brand, like a big box retailer, from whom I recently purchased a box of legal pads – you know, those yellow lined pads that we write on at work – and they wanted me to give them a review. I was like, “Oh hey, let me stop everything and give you a review.” Then probably the worst offender that I saw during that time period was the email that I received from a clothing retailer. The headline on the email was “Staycay is better than vacay,” and they were advertising a 40% off friends and family sale. This is anything but a staycation, people. We are sheltering in place. This is for the safety of all humanity at this point. Don't make light of the situation. On the flipside, like the example that I gave you of the ski gear retailer that sent me that great message, I've also seen incredible efforts from brands, big and small, to be helpful. I have a really good friend who owns a chain of ecofriendly dry cleaners, and if you think about it, dry cleaners are not doing really well during this time, are they? It's considered an essential service, but since we're working from home – I don't know about you, I don't know what you're wearing, but I'm doing what I call the “business mullet,” where I'm wearing business gear on top and I've got workout pants on the bottom. It's business on top, party on the bottom. We're just not wearing dry clean-only clothes. He called me in a little bit of a panic and he was like, “I think my business is going to completely tank.” I said, “Let's think about this for a minute.” He's an ecofriendly dry cleaner. He also has a network of vans and drivers – it's a pickup and delivery service. They come to your house, they get your stuff. I said, “Everybody's working from home in their day pajamas, and they make the transition to the night pajamas later, so they're not doing dry cleaning of their clothes.” However, I work in my dining room and I have a set of really hideous, very dirty drapes. I said, “Do you guys dry clean drapes?” He was like, “Yes, I do.” I said, “You know what? It sounds like a time for you to educate people on the household items in your home that, while you're working from home and looking at them for 24 hours a day, you might think about getting cleaned, to have a cleaner, healthier home.” I said, “How can you be the arbiter of helpful content? You're an ecofriendly dry cleaner. How can you be the arbiter of content that is cool, that's helpful content about how you can keep your home clean during this time that you're sheltering in place with products that you have around the house that are also ecofriendly? How can you also provide helpful, useful content to people while they're working from home? Nobody sees more business casual clothing than the dry cleaner. How can you, in a fun and uplifting and elevating way, create some content for your immediate community showing them the best and worst of Zoom fashion?” Just to bridge the gap with content. This time is bringing out the best and the worst in people. Don't send the email that's the “We are in this together,” and God forbid, please don't use any of those words that I used in my parody email. Make sure that you're being authentic and sincere to your brand. What you do as a brand during this time is going to define you, more so than what you say. This is a time for people to take action. Thank you for listening to my TED talk. ROB: Oh, it's fantastic. To take action, to give, and to rethink. If a dry cleaner can rethink their business for this time, then so can any of us. I know, Deb, you're certainly not the only one with the “business mullet.” You might've seen this – I saw Walmart said that their sales of shirts are up and their sales of pants are down. DEB: Yes. [laughs] I love it. It's amazing. ROB: It's pretty universal. Deb, when people want to get more from you, when they want to see what you're doing – you mentioned all of this content you're putting around your brand, all these different tools that you're putting out into the world – where should people go to find those things? DEB: People should go to debgabor.com. All the things are there, including the webinar series, which we're adding new webinars every day. These are open and available to the public. Like I said, I'm bringing on a bunch of really, really interesting experts. Our focus really is just to help people. Nobody gets paid for this. I have experts in my network, and I'm helping them connect with people and share their expertise to help other people. There's ways to get in touch with me. You can send emails to me via the site. I'm on all the social media stuff as Deb Gabor. You can find me. I love to hear from people. If you hear this and you're like, “Wow, what you said, I really like it” or “What you said, it's complete B.S.,” I want to hear from you. I love to talk to people. I'm an extrovert, so this time of sheltering in place is really hard for me. So please, connect with me. Please, please love me. ROB: [laughs] Fantastic. Yes, I am in that boat with you of severe cabin fever. DEB: [laughs] Yep. ROB: Thank you for coming on the podcast, Deb. You've given a lot today. It sounds like you have an absolute ton more to give. I hope people will seek you out, and hopefully next year we can actually connect in person in Austin, Texas for South by Southwest. DEB: Yeah, I hope so. Thank you. ROB: All right, thanks, Deb. DEB: Take care. Bye bye. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

Some of you may know something of famed violinist, Fritz Kreisler.  He was one of the best violinists the world has known.  A story is told of Kreisler as he once traveled from Hamburg, Germany to give a concert in London.  Kreisler had about an hour before his boat sailed, so he wandered into a music shop.  The proprietor asked if he could look at the violin Kreisler was carrying.  The store owner then vanished only to return accompanied by two policemen, one of whom told the violinist, “You are under arrest.” “What for?” asked Kreisler. The policemen responded, “You have Fritz Kreisler’s violin.” Kreisler said, “I am Fritz Kreisler.” The cop said, “You can’t pull that on us.  Come along to the station.”  As Kreisler’s boat was soon to sail, he faced a crisis.  His identity was being questioned and there was no time for prolonged explanations.  Kreisler asked for his violin and played a piece for which he was well known.  “Now are you satisfied?” he asked.  They were.  Kreisler’s identity was revealed through his action and the playing he exhibited. His actions spoke louder than any words he could have uttered regarding his identity.           In today’s reading from John’s gospel, we are plunged into a crisis – an identity crisis.  In today’s gospel reading Jesus’ identity is again questioned by the religious leaders.  It is the middle of winter and the festival of Dedication, a festival now known as Hanukkah.  Jesus is walking in the Temple, in the portico of Solomon – the place from which the king would render judgments upon those seeking justice.  And, it is in that place where Jesus again responds to questions about his identity.  The religious leaders who wish to discredit Jesus taunt him and demand to know just who he thinks he is.  They say, “Hey, Jesus, stop keeping us in the dark.  If you’re the Messiah, just tell us straight out.  Just who are you, Jesus?  What are you up to and how long are you going to annoy us?”  Now, in John’s gospel, Jesus’ identity has been revealed from the very beginning and, throughout the gospel, Jesus has been revealing himself as God’s light in the world.  He has been healing people, opening the eyes of the blind and giving the people around him numerous, multiple insights into his identity.  He has been demonstrating and revealing who he is through the entirety of his ministry.  So, he now responds by saying, “I told you, but you don’t believe.  Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words.  You don’t believe because you are not my sheep.  You don’t recognize the voice of the shepherd among you.” Jesus uses the metaphor of sheep and shepherd, a metaphor very familiar to people of that time and place, one that is threaded throughout scripture and helps more fully articulate his identity.  However, I am not so sure we are always able to fully grasp an understanding of that metaphor.  It really is quite foreign to our context and experience.  At the time of Jesus, all the sheep of the village were kept in one place, one fenced in field.  And, when it was time for each of the owners to take their sheep back home, each shepherd would call his own sheep by using a unique, special call.  When the sheep heard that unique call, they recognized the voice and they would leave the fenced in field to follow their shepherd home.  So, in today’s reading, Jesus frames his identity and role in terms of being the good shepherd.  He frames his identity as the trusted voice to whom the sheep will listen and follow.  He frames his identity as the good shepherd by claiming those sheep the Father has given him as his own. And, he makes a promise.  He says no one will snatch his sheep out of the Father’s hand.  He boldly articulates his identity when he claims that everything he has done has been authorized by the Father.  And, he then makes this remarkable claim; he announces that he and the Father are one – he and the father are of the same mind.  Jesus is saying that he and God are united in the work they do.  It is impossible to distinguish Jesus’ work from God’s work, because Jesus shares fully in God’s work. When Deb and Bruce and I planned worship for this Sunday and looked at today’s gospel reading, I got a bit excited that these words were given to us on confirmation Sunday.  This reading is so meaningful for all of us as we watch each of you make affirmation of your baptism on this day.  Zach, Julianna, and Kate, as you go through life, each of you will experience great joy at different points in time.  And, the truth about life is that you will also experience many times of challenge and sorrow.  Life encompasses all of this.  But, as you make this journey through all that life brings, Jesus’ words to you today are steadfast words of promise.  Jesus is speaking to you, to each one of us.  Jesus, the good shepherd, promises us stubborn protection and care.  His is a voice the flock hears and knows and follows.  And, his voice is especially precious in the mixedness of all that life brings.  We cling to that voice. We cling to the promise that, even though life itself may be snatched away, no one will be snatched from the Father’s hand and not one person will be snatched from God’s immense love.  We cling to the promise that we do not go on in vain, that the Good Shepherd walks with us, guiding us and protecting us in the depth of everything life lays before us.  We listen and cling to the voice of our Shepherd, the voice that empowers and equips us with something greater than all else, the power of love – forgiving, transforming love.  This is the power that raises up, this is the power that enabled Peter to raise up Dorcas, this is the power that has infused this congregation and is raising us up from a past that is gone, for this is the power of the risen Lord!  Zach, Julianna and Kate, this is the power that will raise you up throughout your life as you face all the challenges and joy you will encounter.  This is the power that gives you and each one of us our true identity.  Listen to that voice.  Confirmands, listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd as he calls to you throughout your life, saying: I will come to you in the silence, I will lift you from all your fear. You will hear my voice, I claim you as my choice, Be still and know I am here.   I am hope for all who are hopeless, I am eyes for all who long to see. In the shadows of the night, I will be your light, Come and rest in me.   I am strength for all the despairing, Healing for the ones who dwell in shame.  All the blind will see, the lame will all run free, And all will know my name.   I am the Word that leads all to freedom, I am the peace the world cannot give. I will call your name, embracing all your pain. Stand up, now walk and live!   Do not be afraid, I am with you.  I have called you each by name. Come and follow me, I will bring you home; I love you and you are mine.   Yes, we hear and recognize the voice of One whose very identity is known and whose actions have spoken louder than words.  For, we hear the voice of One who entered our fleshly existence, journeyed to the cross, and moved through the cross to resurrection – all for the sake of God’s great love for this very broken world. This One, this Jesus, has given us identity – naming us and claiming us as God’s very own.

I brought my friend Deb Cooperman on to talk about what she calls her blended, extended upended family. When Deb met her ex husband, he had a one-year-old son, and in this episode she talks about the experience of co-parenting as a step-mom, and how her relationship with her ex, her step-son and his mom evolved over the course of their marriage, through their divorce, and beyond... Deb's story is one of what's possible when three or more people really do some hard work on themselves in order to get through the harder feelings and into acceptance, and even love.  About Deb: Deb Cooperman is something of a “writing evangelist” – as a workshop leader, and founder of The Writer Babes, she's been inspiring and encouraging women to use the powerful but simple practice of writing for personal growth for over 15 years. That's because writing is the best tool she’s found to help women stop the all-too-common knee-jerk habit of apologizing for nearly everything in their lives; to bust through perceived imperfections and ‘not good enough’s; recognize the messages and expectations they’ve internalized; shine a light on blind-spots, and help them claim their wisdom, strength, power, and intuition, and live more mindfully, intentionally, and awesomely. So if you've watched a boatload of TED talks and Super Soul Sunday episodes, read a ton of self-help books, followed a bunch of inspirational coaches on Instagram, and listened to podcast after podcast after podcast ... but you're still feeling like something's missing – that the dots just aren’t connecting – Deb wants you to know that writing is an amazing tool  to help you dig in to your experience, discover more of yourself on the page, and take a stand for a life you want to live.  For inspiration, tools, stories, pop culture references, poetry interludes, and all sorts of fabulosity to inspire and help you start your own writing practice or deepen your existing practice find Deb in these places: Website Instagram Facebook

Subscribe to Selling With Social Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Deb Calvert is the co-author of the brand new book, “Stop Selling and Start Leading” - a seminal work that outlines the actual responses of thousands of buyers to discover what they really want and need form the sellers they work alongside. This episode features a handful of the insights Deb and her co-authors gleaned in their research and is a great taste of how her book will help you make more sales through leading instead of selling. Deb is the president of People First Productivity Solutions, author of one of HubSpot’s “Top 20 Most Highly-Rated Sales Books of All Time”, and a certified sales and executive coach. Join me on this episode of #SellingWithSocial as Deb reveals the powerful truth of how you can actually increase sales when you stop selling and start leading. This podcast is being brought to you by The 10th Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summittaking place this April 3rd - 5th, 2018 in Chicago, IL. Register Now by using the Vengreso only discount code "Leadership1095" for your deeply discounted rate. USE THE BANNER IMAGE These Sales Tips Come From Asking Buyers What They Need From Sellers One of the most relevant parts of Deb Calvert’s new book, “Stop Selling and Start Leading” is that the insight it contains comes directly from responses buyers gave to this question, “What do you really need from the sellers you work with?” From those responses, 20 leadership behaviors were discovered that buyers want to experience more consistently from sellers. The good news is that each of them is easy to understand and simple to apply. The better we know our buyers’ needs, the better we’ll be able to serve them and provide the right solutions - and the research explained in Deb's new book makes the learning curve short and sweet. In this conversation, Deb and I talk about three of those 20 leadership behaviors, outline what they mean, and flesh them out with real-life examples. Don’t miss it! Stop Selling By Creating A Real Two-Way Dialogue With Buyers Most sales professionals believe they engage their buyers in dialogue to discover needs and offer appropriate solutions. Yet, the buyers who responded to Deb’s survey questions stressed that a two-way dialogue is something they want to experience more with buyers. That means we’re not being as effective as we think. Deb says dialogue is more than questions and answers. It’s more than asking qualifying questions (which is really nothing more than diagnostic analysis). Two-way dialogue requires that we pay close attention to what our buyers are saying and that we are present in every moment of the conversation rather than thinking of our next question or next step in the sales cycle. That kind of presence dignifies the buyer and enables us to understand why the solution the buyer needs matters to them and how it’s going to fit with everything else they are doing. That kind of understanding is what builds trust and long-term relationships. Learn the difference between asking questions and leading your buyers into a two-way dialogue, on this episode. This podcast is being brought to you by The 10th Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summittaking place this April 3rd - 5th, 2018 in Chicago, IL. Register Now by using the Vengreso only discount code "Leadership1095" for your deeply discounted rate. How You Can Encourage Your Sellers In Ways That Translate To More Sales Deb says that one of the leadership behaviors buyers want to see more from sellers is encouragement. When Deb speaks of encouraging buyers, she means a lot more than asking for the sale or prompting them to make a decision. She means sellers need to celebrate the shared values and shared victories they experience with the buyer as well as every struggle in the sales process. Think it through: we are asking buyers to champion our solution to the rest of their team. That’s often a very difficult step for them which may mean saying “no” to other things, fighting internally for budget resources, or working to change existing structures to accommodate our solution. They need encouragement to keep going, to stay engaged, and to keep believing in the results our solutions will provide for their team. Find out how you can better encourage your buyers and get more sales as a result, on this episode of Selling With Social. It’s Easy To Stop Selling And Start Leading. Find Out How When Deb Calvert initially said that her research discovered 20 leadership behaviors that buyers want sellers to demonstrate on a consistent basis, I have to admit it was a bit intimidating. So I asked her how easy it is to learn these behaviors and add them to my sales approach. She said it’s very easy and that the first thing we need to do is to think less of ourselves as a salesperson and more as a leader. Deb pointed out that every one of us already has others looking to us for guidance - and being a leader in sales is all about guidance. Buyers are looking for someone to guide them to understand the solutions available to them and the benefits they will provide. As a sales leader, you’re perfectly positioned to become that guide. Learn how to stop selling and start leading from Deb Calvert, on this episode - and find out how you can get a free download of the first chapter of her new book. Outline of This Episode [1:43] The launch of Deb’s new book: Stop Selling and Start Leading [6:18] Why Deb’s book is so unique and how the book came about [9:07] The top 5 leadership practices needed consistently in sales [17:15] Buyers want sellers to encourage their heart [21:56] An extraordinary story of selling through leading [30:25] How easy is it to implement these leadership behaviors? [33:14] How you can get Deb’s sneak peak of the book [34:01] A surprise Deb discovered: ALL buyers want these qualities in sellers Resources Mentioned www.StopSellingStartLeading.com - Deb’s website BOOK: Stop Selling, Start Leading on Amazon Deb on LinkedIn Deb on Twitter: @PeopleFirstPS BOOK: Discover Questions Get You Coinnected Deb’s all-time favorite movie: Up Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner (Deb’s co-authors) The Leadership Challenge Kyle Hullmann of All Search Professional Staffing Social Business Engine Podcast - Bernie Borges The 10th Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summit - April 3-5, 2018 - use the code “Leadership 1095” Connect with Mario! www.vengreso.com On Facebook On Twitter On YouTube On LinkedIn Subscribe to Selling With Social Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play Join Mario at The 10th Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summit - April 3-5, 2018 - and use the code “Leadership 1095” to get a Vengreso-only discount  

Open Mic Spotlight Radio Show Open Mic Spotlight PRESENTS Deb Brosnan this weeks’ Unique Exciting Speaker with Animal Communication! We will dive into all of who Deb is, all about Animal Communication ~ sacred dance and spirituality, what she is creating in the world, her ideas, messages and anything else that comes forward during the conversation. Be sure to come join us LIVE! Deb Brosnan: Deb Brosnan is an animal communicator, who uses her empathic, psychic and communication skills to work with all animals and their humans to create all-inclusive ‘wholistic’ relationships. Deb began communicating with animals as a young child. She loved all animals and as an empath, she was deeply in touch with their feelings. When Deb began her riding instructor apprenticeship in 1999 working with horses at a therapeutic riding facility, she began to understand the scope of what was possible when communicating with animals. The true scope of her ability to communicate to humans on behalf of horses and other animals began to take shape. Wholistic Riding is the program created by Deb through her work with the horses she has partnered with for almost 2 decades to teach a more far-reaching way of working with and riding horses. Deb has expanded her work and facilitation as an animal communicator beyond horses. Creating the Wholistic Animals program for all animals and their humans to create a more cohesive way of understanding, working and living together. Email: deb@debbrosnan.com Website: debbrosnan.com Social Media Links: facebook.com/WholisticRiding/ Going live the end of February 2018: http://www.wholisticanimals.com & http://www.wholisticriding.com SPECIAL FREE GIFT: Everyone is welcome to download the following audio “Aligning with Animals” for their personal use. It is approximately 10 minutes long and it is one of Deb's favorite exercises she uses in her Animal Communication Classes. Deb's students find that it gives them a great way to connect with any animal they are working with or hope to have a deeper appreciation of.  https://www.dropbox.com/s/7uw0gobik94u3r5/AligningwithAnimalsAudiobyDebBrosnan.mp3?dl=0

Debi Hertert of Hosting Your Home talks with Todd Brandewie, owner of a whole-house rental near Dayton, Ohio.  At the time, Debi and her family were renting Todd’s house for a family reunion. Todd is a single dad and lives in his house with his four-year old son.  Several nights per month, Todd and his son move to Todd’s dad’s house, or Todd’s RV, in order to rent out his Dayton house.  When Todd got divorced and found himself unable to pay the mortgage, his mom suggested Airbnb.  That suggestion saved Todd’s house and has given him a new outlook on life.   [editor's note]: Many municipalities restrict short-term rentals of whole houses, concerned about depleting the stock of long-term rentals.  Todd's is one of many examples in which homeowners would not choose to share their space as long-term rentals, because it does not fit their family living situations. As communities try to estimate the impact that Airbnb and similar platforms have on long-term rentals, they often rely on unreliable data "scraped" from short-term rental sites, and assume that houses like Todd's would be available for long-term rental if the short-term options were legislatively removed.    It is misleading to count such houses as impacting the long term rental market. A common example is an owner who wants to have space always available for their family who come visit.  We are supportive of protecting long-term rentals through good legislation, such as requiring the owner or long-term tenant to live in the home most of the year. Regulators should become aware of these types of sensible uses and make sensible rules. SHOW NOTES: Debi introduces Todd Brandewie and his mother, who is also an Airbnb host and got Todd started.   Deb talks about how well the house is working for her family.  When he rents out his own house, Todd vacates to his dad’s, or to his camper which is at his dad’s, or travels out of town.  He does a lot of cleaning himself, but does have a housekeeper who helps, and even his friends help if necessary!  He really understands how important cleanliness is in vacation rentals. Deb asks Todd how he manages moving out of his house and back.  She tells him this is the first time she has stayed in an Airbnb of this “model” where the owner lives there but leaves when they have guests.   Todd talks about the number of nights he likes to book and it covering his mortgage and some utility bills.  When Deb asks Todd to “Tell us your story”, Todd talks about thinking people would never come to Dayton, Ohio, but realizes now that there are many reasons people travel, and tourism is only a part of it. Most of his guests are coming to see family.  The family focus led Debi to recommend listing on ClanVenture, another vacation rental platform.  Access to the Airbnb platform has allowed  Todd  to keep his house after his divorce.  He shares custody of his four-year old son. Todd told all his neighbors what was going on when he started renting.  Most of his neighbors don’t even know what Airbnb even is. He said he gets lots of guests who are new to Airbnb, with no reviews.  Deb asked if Todd is worried about anything in his house getting wrecked or taken, and Todd said he doesn’t really worry  about anything in the house. Todd described his one bad experience, which was a group of dog show people who were not respectful of his property.  Followed by asking Debi for any suggestions for  improvements.  She mentioned pillows – the need for choice.  4 per bed, two soft, two firm. They talked about mattresses, and Debi told Todd and his mom about Tuft and Needle, the mattress company that has a promotional program and a waiting list for a free mattress for Superhosts.  There was a discussion about sheets, using white for everything so can bleach, getting the little black cosmetics washcloths; Todd gets frustrated about people leaving lights on all the time, and benefits of changing out to LEDs.  He expresses his gratitude that  Airbnb has allowed him and his son to keep their home. Deb asks Todd about some memorable guests.  He joked about people leaving wine and beer, but then said several people from the Lion King cast rented his house for 28 days and invited him over for a party with the whole cast, and how fun that was. And they gave him 4 front row tickets to the show!     Links: Todd’s house: https://airbnb.com/rooms/12264444 Clanventure:  https://clanventure.com/ Tuft and Needle:  https://goo.gl/PSrHHX  

On this very special episode Deb is running late so Antonia's daughter Xea sits in to talk about cultural appropriation. When Deb gets in they talk about can women and men be friends? They phone a male friend Nick king to give his take on the friend zone.