How Stories are Important to your Business with Ian Garlic | S2E014

Speaker A: Foreign. Hey now, welcome back to a, uh, sales team ready podcast where there are no limits and everything is possible. Right? There's nothing but opportunity before you and the mountaintop to be seized. So, uh, we are here to be your guide and your journey, uh, on that. And uh, we're doing everything in our power to help you see what is possible for you when you overcome the limits and the blocks in the way and just get you the systems, process strategies and insights, whatever can come from my brain and our experiences or any of the experts that we bring to you. It's all about helping you scale, helping you get exponential growth, helping you see what is possible, things that may not have been previously done, um, visible to you. And we want to constantly encourage you to step outside the comfort zone and go get it, make it happen. All right, before we dive in, make sure you go to, uh, the gympie360.com my personal website where you can catch me at any place that is convenient for you, catch all my social medias videos there, learn more about us. You, uh, find out how to work with us, find out how to work for us and everything in between, uh, and all of the events that we have coming up because we always have good ones coming and we have some really big ones coming up now, so make sure you check them out there. Jim Pete360.com when you do hit that contact button, save me into your phone and shoot me a text message and let me know where you're at, where you're coming from, what you're hearing, what you like, what you don't like, and anything you need. If you're, if you want some help specifically or want to do it, wants to do an episode, uh, about a specific topic, let us know. That's the fastest way to make it happen and we can help you from there. Right? So let's go ahead and dive in. I'm going to bring somebody to you today who's an expert around storytelling. Someone that I've gotten to know recently and really, really like his approach. Um, love what he's doing. And I cannot agree more. Every single thing that he talks about, I'm in lockstep with. Um, because you have to be able to tell your story, you have to be able to tell your client's story. You have to be able to tell the story of the people that you've helped. Right? Because it's not about selling people stuff. It's about connecting with people and delivering an experience that will help them see how much, you know, how much you care and what you can do about it. So I as one of the country's go to experts in video marketing and storytelling. Over 15 years years of experience in video marketing. Okay, that's very important. Also best selling author of three marketing books. He's recorded 250 episodes of the Garlic Marketing show, created over 10 marketing courses and produced more than 2,000 videos for his clients. That just means simply that he's got some proficiencies. He does. He's solved problems that you haven't even experienced yet. And he's a world class expert. And I uh, want you to pay attention. And this is when you're going to want to rewind, think through. This is a very simple concept. There's not a lot of rocket science in this, but there is incredible amounts of gold that can be gained from it if you actually do what we're talking about here. So welcome Iron Garlic to the podcast. All right, so here we are, Ian, and uh, you know, you just got the big formal introduction. Um, but uh, why don't you just take a minute and tell the sales team ready audience here. How'd you came here? What, what's going on? What, how did this all come to be for you?

Speaker B: Well, you know, I always think back to the airplane quote, like, where do we get started? It's like first the, you know, the earth cooled, the dinosaurs came, then the Arabs came, bought oil. But I've been around sales my entire life. I been in sales and marketing in some way, shape or form for most of my life. I was a bartender for a while, which is sales. And eventually, uh, when I was in New York, I was in commercial real estate sales, like investment grade. And right when the crash happened, I was like, I need to do something else. I loved marketing. I was doing a lot with LinkedIn myself and this was 2005, so LinkedIn was really easy because if you got a message on LinkedIn, people are like, what is this? And everyone would respond, yeah, we started the agency really to get people's stories out there, you know, video marketing. When YouTube was purchased by Google, I was like, this is it. And I'd already been using customer story videos in my sales process. And I'm like, this is it. And we, we're making a lot of other types of videos for professionals. But from a sales and marketing standpoint, I knew video was gonna be powerful and I knew storytelling is powerful and customer stories. And you put it all together and we start the agency and we have three businesses now and video Case story is really where Everyone starts with us.

Speaker A: Got it. And, yeah, I totally remember the days when it was a novel thing to get a message on LinkedIn or any platform for the. For that matter these days. But, um, yeah, so that, that's good stuff, man. I like. I mean, stories. I can't remember who gets the original credit for that statement, but, uh, you know, it's not about what you say to people. It's about how you make them feel when you say it. Right. That what you leave them with is what they're gonna keep.

Speaker B: Yep. Maya Angelou.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Yes. It's a great quote from her.

Speaker A: Yeah. Very applicable here. So, um, so when it comes to stories, I mean, it's. I think everybody's got a story. Everybody's got a billion stories.

Speaker B: A billion stories.

Speaker A: It's. I was actually just, just watching a training call with Roland, uh, Frazier the other day, and, you know, the guy's been very accomplished and done many, many things in the business world, in all areas and ventures. And he was. He had to sit down with his wife and kids for them to pull out of him the stories because he didn't think he had any stories. And I'm like, dude, you got stories just walking around the corner. Right? But sometimes we just can't see him.

Speaker B: No.

Speaker A: How do people get past that?

Speaker B: Well, I mean, for us, it's. It's having someone. Like you said, having someone outside interviewing you and a conversation. I think one of the people think that there's like, this magic and there's formulas we use, but it's. You can't someone send someone question and tell stories? We're human beings. We need to talk to someone and know what we want the stories to do, because we all have stories, but we need to know what we want stories do, talk through them, and then collect them in one place. We created something called the tackle box for that reason. Because I, I talked to so many companies and they, they'd say the same thing. Oh, we don't have a story. And then I'd interview them, like, yeah, you have some stories. And they're like, oh, yeah, we have a story over here that we, you know, I don't know where it is. I'm like. So we start to collect, you know, create a system for planning them out where you're going to use them. So we know them, what stories to collect and look for. And then once we shoot them, we collect them and put them in one place. But they also can be written stories or ideas for stories and in there. But you have to have that system. I actually start to develop this when I was in sales because one of the best salespeople I knew just collected stories. They had the best salesperson I knew collected stories. And that's all I did. He wasn't looking for closing tricks. Uh, he wasn't looking for, you know, the latest prospecting trick. He just wants stories and when you start to have them. And I, uh, go into every sales meeting with a bunch of stories lined up. But you have to be actively collecting them, talking to people about them.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. You know, I used to back when, before all the complicated, sophisticated machinery work in the computers. Now when we were just getting started with them, the first time I figured out what a folder was on the desktop, um, I was like, this would be a great place to keep stories or story ideas is what I had. And so every time something would come up, whether it was with a customer or whether out walking my dog, and I was like, oh my God, that was amazing. How did that happen? And then I just, boom. Like is a story and I throw it into the folder because you never know when it's going to be relevant, right? It doesn't necessarily work for every deal and it won't work right now, but three months from now you may come across somebody like, this is perfect. I was walking my dog this one time, right? And it just totally relates exactly, exactly.

Speaker B: And you have them ready and you get used to having them ready. And so when it happens, you're like, oh, I got the perfect story for this. And I mean, that's the key. It's not, it's simple, just not easy.

Speaker A: So what, what kind of stories should people be collecting? And I mean, I mean, you know, obviously all kinds store. But is there like a, a three minute, a 30 minute, a 30 second? Like what. What kind of a template do you have people work, huh?

Speaker B: On. That's an amazing question. Because this is one most. Besides, what questions should I ask in a video case story? Uh, I. That's probably the number two most used question. And it matters, right? It's like anything, it depends on life. We do have a template for the story. Uh, it's a three part to it. It's connection, conflict, conclusion. Right? So you should know that. But we also talk about cold, warm and hot. Because the story you tell to someone who doesn't know that they have a problem is different than the story that someone knows they have problems. A different story that someone's about to hire you. And it's a different version of that story too. Um, so, but if you have an amazingly intricate and heartwarming story, it can be 4, 5, 6, 10 minutes long. We make 30 minute stories, right. But you know, you can tell a story in 30 seconds too and have those micro content pieces floating around, retargeting, et cetera, and have that long form story. So it does depend. And we make all those sizes. So what we usually do is we interview after we have a strategy and know what stories we want to get out. We'll interview someone for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. And you get multiple stories inside there and like, well, where are we going to use this and how are we going to use this? And that will depend on the length and, and the template for it.

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, I, I'm a pretty creative. I mean that's my. I'm definitely more, I'm visionary. Well, far more than detail. Okay. I'm 99.9% visionary, so stories come easy to me. Um, and I can make anything relevant. Like I said, talking a story about walking my dog or a story about when I was at a Yankees game, whatever it is, I can find a way to make it relevant. Where do you get people to begin in terms of making it relevant for what they're trying to sell?

Speaker B: We actually, I made a course on this and we call it the fish in the barrel. Right. Because we all have clients where everyone wants to go out and kill, you know, catch that big whale. I wouldn't say kill the whale, but cat, you know, get the big whale. And we go do all these crazy techniques and lead generation, but we have clients, fish swimming around our potential clients swimming around our us, you know, and that's where I tell people to start. Because you people, you should have stories on your website, all throughout your website. You should have stories that show up for when someone googles your name. What's. I mean, if you are introduced to anyone, what's the first thing you do? You Google their name. And you should have stories showing up for that. You have stories that are on your, your LinkedIn homepage. Like when someone looks at your LinkedIn, you should have stories right there because that should be a sales page. You should have stories that you send out right away to people.

Speaker A: So I should those be like mission and purpose type stories so people know what you're about or where do you, where would you start?

Speaker B: I start with customer stories. Right. Because here's the number one thing that when someone learns about you, they're like, do you. Does Jim understand my problem?

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Uh, if it's sales does he understand my problem? Has he helped someone like me with that problem? And did they get an outcome like I want? It was that transformation and that story, your customer stories can answer that. I mean, in the end, like, everyone's like, well, I sell through referrals. Referrals are just stories. It's. It's someone referring to you. They know that person's story. And they're like, oh, yeah, Jim helped me with sales, but I know that person's business, I know that person's story. So I start with that. But then even as you talk about your. About us, which is the second most used page on your website, you should be weaving in customer stories. I think one of my favorite ones that we've done is we did this for Tarkinson Financial, Fran Tarkinson. And if you go to their homepage, you can see the stories of their people, of their. Of their clients, of their advisors woven into their about us. And then you get about us, and then the story of what it's like to work with you, your process story, because you want to future pace it. So those are the stories, and I pretty much do them in that order.

Speaker A: Would you recommend for anybody listening on everybody here that's listening. This is typically in the scale game, everybody's trying to exponentially grow their companies, reach the mountaintop, et cetera. So they've got some level of success, they've helped people, they've delivered results. Would you recommend, like, as an exercise, just start documenting all the people you've helped and then figure out how to turn them into stories.

Speaker B: I mean, that's exactly how we start. We start with the, uh. When we start with a client, we go through what I called about the tackle box, and we're listening out your 10, 15, 20 best clients. And we go through each of their stories with you. And this is an amazing process. I've done this with marketers, with salespeople that think they've got their stories down and they're always. You'll always uncover things, and you start realizing that and uncover opportunities. But yeah, 100%. Start documenting them. Start, um, collecting them right now. And, um, you know, we've got a lot of these things. Just, you know, I'll put it in there. Videocasestory.com str we'll have a lot of these tools available for you. And of course, on the fish in the barrel. So what I call the tackle box, because people like, well, why all these fishing analogies? Well, I have to write off my boat. So, uh, you want to Keep all your tackle in one place. If you go fishing, and that's why you start with it. But like I said, you start with what do you have already and you start going through it and have your team go through it. And then also this becomes a place for then your team to go to. New salespeople learn all the stories because the salespeople don't need to have their own stories. I, you know, you should be using the other people's stories when you get out there. But that's the best way to sell all day long.

Speaker A: Sales team ready is sponsored by Gain the Edge. If you're wondering how you'll hit your sales goals or hit your numbers, if you've experienced sluggish sales so far to this point, are you just tired of hitting the same problems and challenges? Let us talk, Let us see where we can get you unstuck. Right. Because we can create the systems, the processes, the strategies and the sales teams that can help you move past where you're going and reach that mountaintop. Reach out. Join us. The link is in the show notes. Right. Talk to one of our GTE success advisors. See what we can do to get you up to that mountaintop. Yeah, that's one of the things we do when we're building playbooks. Uh, you know, we build sales playbooks, um, when we come in to sell for companies or getting their systems ready for their, for their sales team. And that's one of the pieces that we touch on. But I don't think we go near deep enough because we're just usually looking for like, what's your top couple of case studies that we can share and we should be, it feels like we should like, let's make 10 be the goal right away. Right?

Speaker B: Just. Yeah, you know, and when you talk about it and, and that's one thing we go through is you come up with all the new angles too, and you get deeper and you're like, have you thought about selling this part of your business? Like that you do this. They're like, oh, I didn't even realize that that was a differentiator. We sit down and try and figure out our value proposition. But our customers have our value proposition. We just have to talk about them and talk to them.

Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. What's the biggest challenge for people? Because this wouldn't be a niche for you. You wouldn't be doing this if everybody knew how to do it on their own.

Speaker B: I think you, uh, know the number one challenge is people ask for and get testimonials and they check the box and I tell people, you know, I have a book coming out called Testimonial Stink because a testimonial is about Jim. If you asked me for testimonial, what would I do? I talk about Jim, right? No one, no one cares. No offense, Jim, uh, uh, you're awesome. But no one cares about Jim until they, they know everything that Jim can do for them. Right? Same thing is if you ask for testimonials, you're get people talking about your company. If you don't take the time to dig and find their stories and make this a priority, you're going to get that and be like, oh, I have a bunch of these testimonials. And if you arm your salespeople with testimonials, it just looks like you're bragging. So I think that's the number one thing is that mindset of stories are the most important part of your business. You should be constantly collecting them, spend time, step back, strategize on them and, and you know, and really value them for what they are not check the box.

Speaker A: So if somebody's putting together a secret like they're uh, you know, I can hear people scratching out notes right now figuring, okay, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna find some case study. And then you know, I want to put something short. I can't put a 30 minute case study out there yet because people won't listen to it. Um, is what do you rec. Should they do like a 30 second version first 3 minutes version on the

Speaker B: homepage on the website? Depends on website, two to five minutes. If it's an amazing story, it can be seven minutes long. Um, and then you take little clips of it and sub 60 second versions that you use throughout your social media leading back to that longer version. You want to learn more about this, you want to learn more about this. But 30 minute version can be good for cold traffic. Um, because here's the thing is if you're going to YouTube, which I work into YouTube SEO and getting this stuff ranking and you want to get ranking for certain terms, you can have a 30 minute one that if it's really, really well done and it like really details how things are done and it's instructional and emotional and vibrant. Um, but yeah, on your, on your website I usually sub three minutes um, around there and then it just varies where they are in the customer journey. We had one that on a website that was on the about us page that was 10 minutes long and we had an 80 view time on it and ah, because it was so powerful. But it once again depends on the power. But yeah, two to three minutes is a good place to start.

Speaker A: Yeah. Uh, and so right now I can already hear people going, oh my God, I got to get in a studio and I got to, you know, I got to find somebody and then I got to have a budget for it. And I. What are you saying to them?

Speaker B: If you don't have the money, you should have the time. If you don't have the time, you should have the money. If you don't have either, there's something wrong with your business. Um, and I say, yes, you should, you should dedicate some time. There's nothing more important than your customer stories. People spend how much money on logos, which makes me nauseous. And they're like, I want my logo to say this. The only thing the logo says is what's reflected by the story. Right. When someone sees a Disney logo, there's a story in their head of why it's so powerful. Of like the first trip to Disney or taking the kids or the parents taking them or seen a Disney movie, they have a story in their head. So it's a fundamental, right. I, uh, think about like Kobe Bryant free throws, right? Uh, the guy could shoot some free throws. What did he do? After every championship game he won, he went out and shot more free throws. All right? And that's what makes you a champion. This is a fundamental, like, like you talk about follow up. Follow up is an absolute fundamental and it should be dedicated time every day. So, yes, if you don't have the money, start doing it, start collecting it and start learning how to ask for stories. If you have the money, hire someone who understands storytelling to help you with your stories.

Speaker A: Yeah. Amen. Uh, so get that done, guys. It's just something you have to get done and you can, you just got to start with version 1.0 and then you can always get. You do version 2.0 and then version 10.0. But you got to start with something.

Speaker B: Gotta start with something. It's the key differentiator. And it's a great follow up tool too, right? It's. You can use it every single place in your business. And I have clients that have used their video case stories that we've created them for seven, eight, nine years. Talk about return on investment. Yeah, but like you said, version done. Version done is better than version none.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Uh, and, and we, we use them wherever we can, quite honestly. I mean, I know we probably forget to use them in many place, you know, you can use it to generate interest and get people to want to book an appointment with you. You can use stories after they've booked an appointment with you so that there's now a story to tell them what to expect and why they should show up and what's going to happen when they do. And that's a story, uh, in and of itself. And then after you've spoken to them and made an offer and they need to think about it or process or whatever they're going to do, then it could be another follow up with another story. Hey, while you're thinking about it, here's something that you know, here's somebody who was, who was in that same situation and here's what they did. You know, it's just, it feels like it's just, I mean it's so such a no brainer. Like you should just be dropping them everywhere. Um, and what about the same stories? I mean like if you, let's say somebody had ten stories.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: But they're talking to ten people a week and after a while you're just sharing the same stories over and over. Is that a bad thing?

Speaker B: I don't think so. I mean think about like I love Tony Robbins. I've heard a story about him. You know, his stories like 20, 30 times. Zig ziglar, same thing. 20, 30 times you've heard the stories but it always a story a, it can be told in different ways, right. You, you have different hooks. So my attracted attention. Every time you listen to a story, you might take something different from it. But here's another powerful piece of especially video stories is the more we see someone, right? The more we see and hear their voice and one of your customers and you're sharing it, uh, the more we think they're our friend. It's, it's, it's almost impossible to not feel like you know the person because it's called the mere exposure effect. And in our brain it was. There's a whole bunch of science around it, but basically the more you show these people to them, the more they think they're a friend, the more they trust them and trust to work with you. So reuse the stories. Reuse them. Reuse them.

Speaker A: Yeah. Uh, for sure. Um, what would be like the one thing if, if you, when people are thinking about this and hearing this, if forget everything else that we talked about, what's the one thing that they must remember about stories is you have to

Speaker B: install collecting them, crafting them and delivering them into your Business, it needs to be a habit. Whether you have someone, whether you do it yourself. You need. Because it's one of those fundamentals that if you don't do it, you're not going to know it's not doing it. But if you do it, it's going to set you apart forever. And you just have to install that time. And two, three, I mean uh, I can't think of many things that are more important in your business. Just have the time to do it and make it a habit of collecting and crafting them and delivering them and you'll get better and better and better at it.

Speaker A: So what do you do once you have them? So stories, I mean that's the glue. But now somebody's got their stories and then how do you help them beyond that?

Speaker B: So you know, like I said, the fish in the barrel is that strategy. Make sure they're in these essential 12, 13 places, uh, throughout your website, in emails and long term nurture and follow up on your LinkedIn page, your YouTube page. Then one thing is, what's super powerful is you can optimize stories on YouTube to show up for search terms and show up for your name, right? If someone's searching up, you know, Jim, uh, Padilla and looks up and then there's just boom, story, story, story. Like oh, this guy's really helps people and you can show that. So but also if they're really powerful, they can show up for other people for other terms. Like best sales training you and you have a bunch of people talking about the sales training, how it transformed those YouTube videos not only show up in YouTube being the number two most used search engine show up in YouTube but then also can show up in Google. And so, and then like, then like the sub 60 second ones, the YouTube shorts, like the one you were just on our podcast, we launched it within like a few minutes of launch. It had a thousand views. So distributing them everywhere and then, and then whatever marketing you have, whatever sales you have, look at that and go, let's uh, start with that story. How can I use this in this campaign? We help with that. Then we work with partners. We, we do. Because I'm like, we can't do everything with, with these, we use them in trade shows, books, you can make a book out of your stories. Sales follow up is probably one of the best things. And sales prospecting, I try and get everyone to do that. You call someone up, it's like, hey, these are uh, my clients had these problems, we solved them. Can I send you over a Story of someone who had this exact problem, how we solved it and how they're getting this result. It's really hard for the right person not to say no to that or not say yes to that.

Speaker A: Are you. Obviously video is top, right? I mean video is number one. But um, do you do it in written form too or you know, how do you recommend every story is told both written and in video?

Speaker B: I suggest, yeah, you know, distributor on your social media. That's what's great. It's like, it's really social. Once a story, if it's someone's just saying how great you are as it's boring. But if it's a heartwarming, life changing story, which I found them in every business, they're like, well, I don't know, like my business isn't life changing. I'm like, I've done stuff that you would never think is life changing. That's like highly technical and it's transformed people's business in life. So yes, written social posts, blog posts on your websites, um, emails linking to the videos. Those emails, like great long term nurture, great follow up. Um, yes, but definitely written video, audio, use them on podcasts. Just be a storyteller.

Speaker A: You know, it's funny because most people, I don't think people uh, really believe that they have these great stories. We have a client that we're working with right now. They're a printing company and most, you know, we've worked with a handful of printing companies in the last few years and they all just see themselves as a commodity. Uh, where we produce print, everybody competes on price and that's how we roll. And we're, we've, we've come in and we're showing them. You have so much more. You have a, your business is a, is a living, breathing being and it's got a story, it's got goals, it's got people, it's got, you know, it's a 50 year old company on top of that. Right. So rich with stories. And what now? It's like all of a sudden, you know, we were just noticing the other day, you know, we're doing weekly meetings with them. All of a sudden the whole team's showing up and everybody's contributing and they're like, oh, we did this and we were touring the production room the other day and it's like there's a story, story about that. And so now they're becoming the story.

Speaker B: Yes, I love that. I love it because that's the other part. It inspires your team. Right. If, if you just talk about your output, right. And the function of it, it's like oh yeah, paper printing, great. But in there I'm sure there's like I'm m just thinking probably all the people that they didn't realize that they helped, like they made this last minute invitation or they made this thing that transformed a non profit or you know, and inspires the team and you know, one of my favorite things is I don't know about you Jim, but I have bad days and I'm like, oh, and like you have clients that are frustrated, things go wrong and you think

Speaker A: got a lot of those stories.

Speaker B: But uh, on those bad days I love to watch the stories of someone I helped. Like a story not someone saying how great I am, but it's like oh yeah, I helped me to build. Because of that they we were able to build this house and buy this office and you know, go on vacation with my family. I just had a story today of someone's like I was able to take my first day off thanks to your advice and, and you know, everything went fine. Like that to me is priceless.

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Man, that is, that's really good. Um, you know, we're getting to the end of this here and it wraps up. Give me a couple of things that like what's somebody. Something needs to do right now. They're going to start putting stories together. What can they do and then what can they come to you with?

Speaker B: The first thing is like look at what your goals are. What do you want the stories to do? I get crystal clear on that because that will help you to. Because stories can do so much. Your customer stories can do so much for your business. But you need to know where to start. I have a list of like 50, 60 different ways we've used customer stories. But you got to think about what do I want this to do and why? Because then when you come and you start listening to those, you look at the people that you worked with and go, oh, we want more of that person. Right. The story can be like a uh, cloning device because it attracts that story, attracts someone else. So think about those goals. What are your marketing initiatives?

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: Uh, are you going to be doing PPC or something like that? What are your sales initiatives? Do you need a train? Do you need better follow up, prioritize that stuff. And once you do that, you can come to us and we sit down and we start talking about your stories. We do a strategy session around the stories and, and start to interview your client. We cra. Craft questions specifically for your clients and customers. And then all you have to do is introduce us and we take it from there and do all the scheduling and all this stuff and make all the different forms of videos based on that and give you an advice and strategy on where to use these. But start, get crystal clear in your goals. I can't tell you. I'm sure you have the same thing. Like, people come to us, they're like, well, I want more marketing. I'm like, well, what do you want

Speaker A: it to do right?

Speaker B: I don't know. I'm like, well, we have to figure that out.

Speaker A: Yeah. The question that we always ask is, what role do you want this event to play in your annual plan? What role do you want this story to play in your sales strategy? What role do you want this story to play in your business plans? Like just, you know, that's the question we always ask. No matter what they're. What strategy they're coming to us for. What role does this play in your business? Because most of the time they just think of it as an isolated thing.

Speaker B: Yes. No, I love that. That's a great question. I'm writing that one down. I'm using that.

Speaker A: And then, you know, you've given this awesome gift of the videocasestory.com forward/str for sales team. Ready, guys, Keep up. And, uh, so what's in that? What are they going to get in that?

Speaker B: So we'll have access to that tackle box document I told you about and the fish in the barrel planner. This is the 10 to. We're changing it so it's always 10 to 13 places that everyone should be using. Video case stories, customer stories, and how to plan them out. Because like you were asking, like, well, what, you know, how long should it be? We talk, we tell exactly where to use it, how to use it, length, and the type of story, whether it's cold, warm and hot. So we do those 13 places. It's a 13 video series, uh, that just goes in depth and planning that out. Because once you plan that out, now you go start to collect the stories and you know what stories you're looking for, you know what content you're looking for, and that the tackle box, I think is invaluable. It's just a place that you can keep your stories, organize it, and quickly find specific pieces of content. So, um, really help your sales team out.

Speaker A: Outstanding. So you guys make sure you check it out. They'll be in the show notes, but it's video case Story. It's an easy one to remember. Videocase, story.com forward/str. And if you forget, then just go to the show notes because it'll be there as well as, uh, you know, some ways to, uh, get a hold of, of Ian and his team and just do it. Just check it out again. It costs you, cost you nothing to do it and it could cost you a lot if you don't. So make sure that you are dialing this stuff in. And right now I can say that with certainty. You know, we're, we're really trying to lead people effectively through these recession or through this inflationary time, whatever exciting times is what we're calling it, because I'm tired of hearing the buzzwords that are out there. But I agree, you, if you want to increase market share, this is the time to do it. If you want to increase profitability, this is the time to do it. If you want to make leaps and bounds, uh, and gains, uh, on the competition, this is the time to do it. But only if you have a good plan and a good strategy to execute. And so you need to be sharpening all your edges. And this is an invaluable way to get that done. So make sure you're taking advantage of, uh, of, of this opportunity. Go, uh, check out what, what I got for you and make sure you tell them that we sent you and then come back and show us the results. We want to see them.

Speaker B: Yes, yes.

Speaker A: So, uh, what's any parting thoughts? What's your last, last, uh, words to leave people?

Speaker B: I just, what I want to reiterate what you said there because I started this company in the, like the middle of the crash right of 2008. And everyone's like, you're crazy. I'm like, this is the best time. All the biggest companies, the best companies have taken advantage of these times because this is your opportunity. You just have to follow. I mean, I'm so thankful to be here, but, uh, follow people like Jim who know what they're talking about and listen to them and be around people. Because if you sit there and listen to people are doing the recession word or whatever, you're going to get down and you're not going to see the opportunities. You're going to have your head down. So like you said, just be ready right now.

Speaker A: Amen to that. And, uh, I'll give you my biggest tip on the best piece of advice I ever got as it pertains to stories because I, you know, speak a ton and uh, I always think of this through. Be, always be under the influence of your own stories. Don't memorize your stories. Tell your stories and based on how you feel. Because when I talk about my childhood and being abused and growing up, sometimes I tell that from a place of gratitude, like it was a big gift and changed my life. Sometimes I tell it with sadness because I just can't believe that my five year old little self had to go through. And then sometimes I tell it because I'm angry. I'm like, how could you do that to your kid? You know? But it's real because I'm under the influence of the moment. Still the same story just told a little differently each time.

Speaker B: Love that.

Speaker A: So take that with you guys and uh, go. I hope this has been useful. I'm very excited about the interview and uh, really glad for the conversation and I look forward to continuing this because there's a lot more to pull out of this. Appreciate your time, Ian. Thanks Jim. Um, you guys, thank you as always for allowing us and trusting us to be part of of your success team. Go make money, Go change lives and go seize the mountaintop because you deserve it and people need you.