Yaniv Zaid: How to Establish Authority & Build a Loyal Audience as a Tech Leader #225

Hello, hello everyone. This is your host, Akhil Jabbar, and welcome back to another episode of SaaS District. In today's episode, we'll be talking about how to establish authority and build a loyal audience as a tech leader. Today we have our guest, Dr. Yaniv Zaid, joining us. Dr. Yaniv Zaid is also also known as Dr. Persuasion. He is a lawyer and economist, also provider of business and media consulting to companies and organizations, and a requested and highly experienced lecturer on the topic of improvement on speaking, marketing, and persuasion abilities. He's also the number one best-selling author on Amazon with his latest book called The 21st Century Sales Bible, which we'll talk about today. And in 2003, if you guys didn't know, Dr. Zaid ranked number 3 in the worldwide list of public speakers. So super excited to have you on the show today, Waleed. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Akeel. I'm very happy to be here. I heard lots of, uh, of your chapters of your podcast and I enjoyed very much, so it's— I'm honored to be here.

Awesome, I appreciate that. And, uh, you know, we're here, you know, obviously here to speak, you know, share your authority, speak, share about your, your background and what you're good at, which is, you know, a lot of things. But, uh, you know, what we're talking about today is, you know, a lot of leaders, C-suite and above, are now considering becoming authorities in this space, especially when it comes to B2B, in which oftentimes in the past it was overlooked and maybe not given as much importance. But I'd love to hear from you, you know, besides when it comes to selling, can you, I guess, maybe explain the connection between selling, having an audience, and then why building authority is important today as a leader?

Yeah, it's very important to be an expert, to be considered as an expert today in the industry, especially in the tech industry, because when you're an expert, A few things happen. First of all, people pay you more. People are willing to pay you more. You know, when we buy something, it's a brand and we're willing to pay more than the same subject from a different company. So people are willing to pay you more as a self-employed and also as an employee. Second of all, people will talk more about you. Viral marketing. They will talk more about you because, you know, they work with an expert. So they would like to share it with others. And thirdly, the people will argue with you less. You know, they argue less because if you're considered as an expert and you tell them something and you are professional authority or considered as a professional authority, then people will obey, will more likely obey. Now today, it's very important to be an expert because there are lots of people who call themselves experts. You know, everyone can write on LinkedIn, on Facebook, you know, I'm doing a very important role or a very important job, or I did that or I did this. So there's many, many, there are many leaders out there and many knowledge out there. And it's very important to differentiate yourself from others and build the best version of yourself. And I think the game here is to influence other people. You mentioned the connection between sales and performing in front of an audience. So for me, sales is also performing, also influencing in front of people. Usually it's one-on-one meetings, but also in the meetings with many people, also in front of an audience. You know, I teach also how to sell in front of an audience. The best conversion rate will be when you are with many, many people because people will see other people buy, then they are more likely to buy. So if you are a tech leader, would like to be a tech leader, you would like people to follow you, to obey you, then you would like to consider to be as an expert and you would like them to, you like to know and to control your public speaking abilities and sales abilities and marketing abilities.

And would you say that everybody should be, is this applicable to everybody, that they should be building an authority online, or do you think this is for a specific few? Like, how would you decide who?

I think today in 2024, we have 2 identities, one offline and one online. But if you'd like to promote yourself, if you'd like to get better salary or better income, then you need to have both improve your offline identity and your online identity. You know, you can't have not have, you know, LinkedIn account or Facebook account or TikTok account at all. It's okay not to be relevant and active in all of the platforms, but you need to have the platforms. You need to have identity there. People need to see you, to know you. If you write something, there is a principle, it's called social proof. If I talk about myself and I say about myself that I'm an expert, And I'm very good at what I do. It doesn't sound objective. It sounds subjective because I'm talking about myself. So obviously I want to speak highly of myself. But if I will write down on LinkedIn, on Facebook, and I will show some evidence, things I did, accomplishment, achievements, you know, education, certificates, diplomas, testimonials of clients, etc., then people see it on my LinkedIn, on my Facebook, and they consider me as an expert. And the difference between someone Just saying about himself that he's an expert, or actual expert is the is the evidence. You know, I can prove it. I can show you that I I lectured in front of people. I can show you that I have big roles in big companies, that my clients are Fortune 500 companies, etc. So this what what makes me a leader. So I I think it's very very important to have the online identity, and you need to to invest in it, and you need to show your knowledge there, and you need to educate your market that you are very good at what you do. I think it's essential today in 2024.

And, you know, that's the first piece you talk about, which is, you know, identifying what is actual expertise and what you've done and your actual track record. So, you know, people maybe who are looking to start building, maybe this is new for them, or they're early stages, or they have all this, you know, maybe background expertise but in different areas, but it's disorganized. What are some ways you can maybe share with them advice on how to get started on becoming an authority or influencer in the space?

First of all, to identify who they are, who they are, what their unique perspective is, what is their specific knowledge, what they can contribute to others, you know, because we are all great, you know, everyone can be an expert, everyone has a unique voice, and we need to share our unique voice. We don't need to be others, you know, there is only one like us, and we need to be the best version of ourselves. So first of all, the work begins inside to understand What I want to do, what I would like to accomplish, what are my perspective, you know, unique perspective, et cetera. And then I need to gather people who would like to hear my knowledge. I need to identify my target audience, who I would like to talk to. If I would like to work in companies, which companies are suitable for my values and for my skills? If I would like to have employees, which employees would I like to hire in order to move them to action and to lead them? And you need to identify it. So it's much preparation. You know, people don't like to prepare. You know, just, you know, let's start. But before you start, before you just put yourself on Facebook, on LinkedIn, online, offline, you need to prepare yourself, establish who you are, establish who your target audience is. And then you need to identify your messages. And preparation is the key. Preparation is the key because once I know where to go, then Probably I will get there, and I would like to maybe have a vision, you know, long-term vision. Where do I want to be? Where do I want to go a few years from now? Okay, which which job would I like to have in the tech industry? If people will know me as an expert, what what should they know about me? Okay, expert in what? Because I can't be expert in everything. So after you identify it, start creating a good content in many platforms and start talking about it and start you know introducing yourself as a this kind of an expert and then people will follow and your community will grow.

Very nice. So, you know, on one side you have, you know, selling and building authority to new prospects or clients into the external world to, you know, generate sales. And then maybe, you know, there's a spot of, you know, internally as a tech leader, you also have a team and you have shareholders and you have people you're always communicating with and you're trying to, you know, build authority and trust so that people, you know, take action on your message, right? So do you have any advice for maybe leaders maybe struggling with, getting their message, more importantly, their vision. And then behind that vision is get some execution so that they can communicate it. The team hears it and then they actually act upon it. Yeah.

So first of all, I will say lead by example. Lead by example because 2024 people don't want to get just orders. You should do it because I said so, because I'm your CEO or I'm your superior. So lead by example is you need to walk hard, you need to be persistent, you need to walk the talk. If you expect people something, That you need to follow your own expectations and you need to act accordingly. Lead by example is very important. Second of all, we mentioned social proof before. People follow authority. So for example, if you have an experience, let your employees know about your experience. So if there is now a meeting and I would like to share them, to let them do something, okay? And I tell them, you know, 2007, when I worked with, you know, on Google, And we did a project like this, and I also led the team. And I can tell you that we had a failure there, but we fixed it, blah, blah, blah. So I talk about the case, but actually what I mentioned is already, you know, 2007, I had lots of experience and I've been doing it for 20 years and I worked in Google. So actually I showed them many evidence that I'm very good. Now, social proof is at the subconscious level. It's not at the conscious level. I'm now bringing it to the conscious level, but But actually, I'm talking about myself. So when I say, for example, I have 20 years experience, what do I actually say? I say that I'm very good at what I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it for 20 years. You know, I say that I love what I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it for 20 years. I say that people love me and they respect me because otherwise they won't give me the promotion. I say that I already failed elsewhere. So this is why I know what to do now. Okay. So all these things I didn't say directly. I didn't say, well, look, guys, I'm very Good at what I do. You know, I'm an expert. You should listen to me. I know what I'm talking about. You don't know shit. Okay? I'm not talking like this. I'm just telling them stories, and by the stories, it's like soft sale. You know, I convince them. I persuade them by by letting them know how good and how good am I without actually saying this.

So so you know you're reference. You're going back and you're referencing. You know times in life where you've you know faced similar situations. So now you're coming back and. Trying to show them that we're able to do this because I've done this in the past. So by that, you're now building your trust.

This is one example of social proof. Other examples are testimonials. You can show them what clients talked about you or talked about your projects. Another example is certificates, formal certificates. I studied this. So the reason I know it, because I did a course last summer, a 2-week course about Import Expert or about this code or about this software. So I know, I'm not saying I know better than you, but I'm mentioning that I did a course. By the way, every expert is also a student. So if I tell them I also learn all the time, I also keep updating myself, okay, then also it's leading by example. So you are actually saying to them, I also, I don't know everything. I don't know everything. I learn all the time. All the time trying to be a better version of myself. So this is what I expect from you. And another tool, if you would like people to listen to you, is personal attention. Personal attention is listening to people. You know, part of leading by example is also listening to people, hearing them out, not just a meeting where I throw orders, you know, and people are supposed to obey, or I do all the talking. You know, it's a conversation. Listen to people, even if you already have the decision, okay? Or even, or you already know what they're planning to do. Listen to them, you know, respect them, treat them as if they are very important, you know, be, you know, not conservative, try to, you know, change your mind occasionally according to what they say, and then they will respect you.

You know, open-minded, you know, and once, so, you know, we talk about establishing expertise. So now it's okay, I'm an authority, I'm an expertise, and now I am, you know, but it's just me and myself. I know I have all this knowledge, I've had this background, I've had this experience. I've done all these accomplishments, but now it's a, you know, we're talking about how to actually influence people and, you know, get people to take action. I guess that's the point of, um, you know, sharing this knowledge with others is you want them to be aware of this problem.

Mm-hmm.

And hopefully they're like, hey, I identify with this problem. And maybe do you have a solution that, you know, we can work on together? 'Cause this bothers me as well. Um, but there's also a lot of noise and there's a lot of billions of dollars spent in this world trying to capture everybody's attention right now, especially on all these different social media platforms. So how do you, you know, what are some maybe strategies or tips that you can suggest for people to, you know, reduce their distractions and then, you know, remain focused and stand out from their environment?

Well, first of all, we mentioned already preparation. If you prepare yourself for conversation or for meetings, then you can be very focused on what people want and what people are willing to listen. And the second thing we mentioned is to create good content. If you create good content, if I I say about myself that I'm an expert of sales, for example, or some specific software, then I need to create a lot of content about sales, good content, you know, to address, you know, actual events and talking about the perspective, the sales perspective, you know, to share stories, failure stories, success stories, my stories, my clients' stories, etc., to behind-the-scenes stories because people love it. To share practical tips about sales, and then I start creating a community and growing the community because people share the information. And in 2024, it's very easy to share the information on social media and other platforms. So if I create good content, you know, posts and videos and newsletters and articles, professional articles and lectures, you know, even inside the company, if I'm self-employed, if I am an employee and I would like to. To be a manager or to be a better manager, then make a lecture about your knowledge. If you lecture, then immediately you'll become an expert. What's the difference between an expert and not an expert? It's 10 centimeters. What is 10 centimeters? The height of the stage. Now it's metaphorically speaking, you don't need actual stage, but when you talk to people and you provide lecture about a specific topic, immediately they consider you as an expert. When there is lots of noise and lots of knowledge, people are looking for the right knowledge. People are looking for the experts, you know, because there are lots of garbage online, but also lots of good content. And if you are persistent with and consistent with many, with much content over again and again and again, and use as many platforms as you can, then you create your own community and people will follow you and they will ask you for the professional questions.

Yeah, so, you know, when it comes to content creation, there's, you know, different ways to kind of stand out, different formats as well, right? You mentioned a few, you know, written newsletters, blogs, content, video, and then speaking, um, podcasts, ebooks, books. Exactly, you have them all, right? Amazon, you publish there, uh, you give talks, and, you know, your background you have there in Tel Aviv. Um, what— so, but if there's one skill, maybe, you know, so there's a lot, you know, maybe, uh, communication hasn't been part of their CEO strategy, they've been very focused internally, um, but now they're looking to, you know, get out and establish influence, so we talked about If there's one skill that you would recommend that every leader invest in or at least start with to help enhance their communication, what would that be? Would it be the written skills, their speaking skills, or what would it be?

I will surprise you. I will say listening skills. Listening skills. Because if you are in sales and marketing and if you're a manager, you like to talk. Okay, I like to talk, you like to talk. We make our living from talking. But I say against your instinct, you need to listen more. If I would like to be good in sales, I need to listen to my clients. I need to understand their problems. Before I sell them the solution, okay? I call it sell the problem before the solution. Also, I speak about it in my lectures and workshops in my books. So identify the problems, and then you can come with the with the with the solution, or identify the needs, and then you can come with the answer. Identify the pains, and then you can come with the with the cure. So so listen to people, listen to your employees, listen to your clients, okay? Listen to your vendors, you know. Listen to to your colleagues. Listen to your employees. And listen what they have to say, what they really have to say. And then you can be a better salesperson, a better person, a better manager. So this is a skill you need to develop because people who has naturally this skill, listening, usually they are psychologists, psychiatrists, mediators. They are not going to sales and marketing and management. Okay. But if you are entrepreneurs or managers or salesperson or marketing persons, Obviously, you need to speak all day. But again, in a meeting, you know, I learned, I learned, by the way, sometimes the hard way that if people are paying me for consulting, for example, I have 1-hour consulting, then when I was 20 years ago, I said to myself, wow, they're paying me lots of money for the consulting. So I need to give them lots of information. So let's talk fast and let's provide information this hour. And I realized that the more the client speaks, the better, he's more satisfied, you know, he's more satisfied. So I will talk only 20 minutes and 40 minutes they will speak and they will describe the problems. And then I will give them the solution and they are happy even though I talked only 20 minutes out of the hour. So again, listen more and talk less. And when you talk, adapt your messages according to your target audiences and according to the problems.

Yeah, it's interesting. I was listening to, uh, I, I read this post recently how like, you know, Tony Robbins has all these, you know, you know, super successful CEOs around the world who have him on retainer paying him millions of dollars. Whenever they need, they can give him a call. It's not that, you know, they're less successful. Tony is probably less successful than them, but the, the having that person that you can call and just listen, and even if they give you one or two advices, like they're able to just organize your, your mind and help you get back grounded and give you just exactly what you need. I mean, that's Super invaluable because you make one wrong mistake as CEO that costs you millions of dollars, right?

And every expert is also a student and we all need experts and we all experts in our life. If I go to a restaurant, my vision or my perspective on experts is very wide because if I'm going to a restaurant, for example, and I don't have much time and I go to the— there is the waitress comes and I ask her immediately, what do you recommend, right? So let's talk about it for a minute. She represents the restaurant, not me. So obviously she is going to speak about the dishes that the restaurant would like me to buy, or maybe the more expensive dishes, or the dishes that are expiring in 2 days from now. And I don't know her. And maybe I'm 46 years old. So maybe I go to a 21-year-old waitress and I ask her immediately, let's decide, you decide for me, what do I enter into my body? Okay. So why do I do all these irrational things? Because in this restaurant, she's the expert, and I don't have much time, and I don't know what to order. So I'm going to the expert by definition, you know, by default, and then she will tell me. And this is what people choose. People choose experts all the time, you know, in the movie, in the restaurant, you know, in the airport, everywhere. Now, there are people that can say, no, no, I don't want to consult with anyone. I know everything, so I will decide. So they look at the menu, and they decide a dish. Okay, now it comes in 20 minutes. Now it's a go, no-go. Because either it's delicious to you or it's not. But if it's not, then you are screwed. You know, you don't— you can't give it back and you already paid money for it and you don't have time to order another one. So most people decide or they choose automatically experts. So if you're considered as an expert, people will address you, people will follow you, people will pay you more, people will ask you. And another advantage of consulting to others is that you think objectively about it. You don't— you know, you're not emotionally involved, you know. So you think about objectively. So it's more easy— it's easier for you to, to give advice. Maybe when you are nervous or when you are under pressure, then you need someone objective to tell you advice. Okay, so this is a long-term relationship with others.

You know, I think part of your example that, you know, comes to mind and often hears is a fear of, you know, giving not wrong advice, but the advice that, you know, doesn't end up being positive, right? So in your, in your case, if you go to this, uh, you know, bartender and you're like, hey, I Pick this dish for me, and then they give it to you, you look at them with authority, and it ends up being, you know, terrible. Now you've lost kind of confidence in them, and like, in that case, it's a small scenario, but it could be, you know, similar, and in a bigger case, obviously more. So, um, both as the person asking and then also the person giving the advice, even, even if they know, have a lot of knowledge, but they may not be able to really understand, like you said, understand that person to give the right advice for them, and that's where I think it's the hardest part, right?

Yeah, so, so it's a great example. I will address it first of all You need to be authentic and you need to be honest with people. If you don't know the answer, don't just give an answer because people ask you. You can say, I will check, I will check, you know, the waiters, I will check with the kitchen what is good. Okay. So it's okay not to know everything. It's okay to find, to look and find out the answer and go back to the client or something like that. And second of all, my basic assumption is that you and I and everyone listening to us are good at what they do. Okay, that people don't say I'm an expert if they are not experts. Okay, and if, for example, the dishes are bad, so you can have at the restaurant the best salesperson ever, but if the dishes are bad, then they will say it, they will sell it once, and then it's, I won't love it, and I won't come back to the restaurant again. So a good company, a good, you know, software company, tech company everywhere is a combination between a good product and good sales and marketing. Okay, because If it's just good product and you don't know how to sell it, then you know it remains on the shelf and nobody will buy it. Also, a good person who doesn't know how to interview, you know, in a job interview, then nobody will hire them. But if you have a lousy, lousy product and very good sales, you know, you can't maintain it for long-term relationship. And I'm talking only about long-term relationship. In a long-term relationship, you need to be an expert. You need to be good at what you do. You need to be honest with your clients. You don't need to know everything. You know, I always say be Batman and not Superman. You know, because what's the difference? Because they are both Batman and Superman. They are both superheroes and they both look like human beings, right? But Batman is actually a human being and Superman was born in a different planet. So if Superman will have a workshop, how to fly, okay? And I sit in the first row and I write everything. And they will explain to me, go to the roof, check the weather, check the wind, you know, make the first step. And I will do everything he says, I will still fall from the roof because, because he's— I'm just a human being. But Batman is an ordinary person who developed not ordinary, unique skills, you know. So if Batman says to you, well, I'm like you, I was once like you, I even have a worse story because my parents were killed when I was young, etc. And then I developed the skills to fly and I teach myself and I taught myself. So I'm going to teach you now. Then I, you know, I have more identification with him. You know, I would, you know, be aware of what he says. I would like to follow him. I would like to learn from him. So you don't think if you are C-level managers in tech, you don't need to be superheroes, you know, to know everything. You don't need to know everything. Just you need to be humans who are trying to get better all the time and they have failures and successes and teach the others and then people will follow you.

Yeah, that makes that makes sense. You know, the last part I want to speak about is a little bit maybe more about your book, you know, 21st Century Sales Bible. If you can speak, you know, so you have the you know the the ten kind of main principles and you call them the ten commandments in the book, which which I love. I love the analogy. Maybe you can share a little bit. You don't have to share everything, but just for people to give a little brief preview of what to expect from from learning from that.

Well, the book first of all, it's a bestseller book. I sold I sell it. Worldwide, including United States and Russia and China and India and the Philippines and Vietnam and more countries. My biggest professional achievement is that I sold the same book, the rights of this book, to both the United States and China and Russia and India, 4 superpowers, you know, with very different mentalities. And they all like the book. They all, you know, every publishing house makes their adjustments, but little adjustments for the target audience. But The same book for all of them. And as I mentioned in the earlier speaking, our conversation is that people are people everywhere. And when I deliver workshops, sales workshops or marketing workshops or public speaking workshops worldwide, the same workshops in Vietnam, in New York and in Tel Aviv, for example, the same workshop, people will ask me the same questions. They have the same problems, same issues of business owners, etc. So the book, The 21st Century Sales Bible, is now in stores in the United States and also on Amazon. It's combined of a combination of 10 chapters, 10 commandments, how to improve your income, how to increase your income, how to build your professional authority, how to create a community and grow your community, how to deliver a speech, and how to become the best business person you can be. It's both for salaried employees and also for self-employed. It's both for high-tech and low-tech. I provide hundreds of examples and case studies and stories. Very, very interesting. And 10 chapters and each chapter is combined with lots of subchapters with many, many stories. So, you know, a very practical book. You will love the book. And also short stories that you can read each day, you know, 2, 3 pages before you get to sleep. Learn something and, you know, when they have a closure and they learn something, next day we'll learn something else.

I love it. Uh, you know, also include the link in our show notes, so guys make sure to check that out. So that sounds awesome. Uh, yeah, I appreciate that. Um, you know, the last question I have around is around using tools and content creation, which a lot of people are now, you know, thinking and, you know, getting this space. You know, it's quite interesting, 2024 you've seen a lot more people, you know, podcasts, uh, you know, people, you know, setting authority. I'm just noticing the B2B space, but You know, we also have AI, right? So AI, deep tech, a lot of interesting things happening in that world. Is there anything you're currently using or you suggest anybody, employee or entrepreneur, content creation or any part of this process to help you, you know, help build this authority?

Yes, I will tell you first of all my personal perspective about AI. I know that it exists and, you know, I use it sometimes and I know many people use it. I say 2 things. First of all, For me personally, I'm very creative and I enjoy my work and I all the time meet new people and have new topics to write about. And I write myself. I almost don't use AI, not ChatGPT or Bardos Extra, etc. But because you have all the time new knowledge and new perspective and new ideas from clients and vendors and people you meet with. So I write all the time books and content and posts I have on my website. Write a blog, etc. But I will tell you what, and I there is an advantage and disadvantage with AI in my perspective. The advantage is that if you don't have any ideas, then then AI can help you. No, if you would like to write about something, you don't have enough knowledge or enough ideas, then you can ask AI. You need to know how to work with ChatGPT about etc., and they will provide you ideas, and then you can take it from there. Okay. So if you have you know a Let's say a block, you know, your mind is blocked, you know, you don't know what to write and you need to write something to your community or you don't know how to start an idea, then AI can help you. This is the advantage. The disadvantage is after they give you the information, you still, in my eyes at least, there is lack of, you know, the secret ingredient, the human aspect, you know. So if I can identify today an article that was written by a person, in an article that was written by AI. So AI is not enough. Okay, so people are relying just AI that I will say exactly what I wanted to write about and they will provide an article. It's not good enough. You need to have the secret ingredient, the human research, your perspective, your humor, your background, your specific words, and then people can identify. And we mentioned earlier that the fact that you need to differentiate yourself from others, you know, in a world that there is lots of content. So the way to differentiate yourself is write yourself and talk about it yourself and have your own, you know, unique ideas and share it with everyone. Because, you know, people today, they have a bullshit radar or fake radar. So they know when you are just quoting others or trying to be others and when you are an authentic version of yourself. And you have actually your own unique language. So most experts I know, they almost don't use AI. Okay. And if they use it just for the beginning of the process and they take it from there.

That makes sense. Yeah, I can see that. I mean, you notice that in most copy nowadays, most of it at the beginning, I think it was powerful, but I think it's going to get harder and harder to be able to differentiate. So yeah, I agree. This has been great. I really enjoyed this, Dr. Yaniv. I would love to kind of shift gears, kind of the last part of the episode is more about the rapid-fire quick questions, personal questions. You ready for those?

Okay, great.

Yeah, so outside of work, so I imagine there was a lot of communications involved, what's one activity you enjoy outside of work that gets you into a flow state?

I run a lot and walk a lot, at least 3, 4 times a week. So when I walk for a long distance or when I run for half an hour, an hour, my creative thinking. It's my moments for myself and it's good for the body, good for the mind. I always recommend the sporting activity. Also helps you in sales, by the way, because you're more energetic and you have more common ground with your clients. You know, you can talk to your clients about the sporting activity. It's also a social proof because people are more connected to people who enjoy sporting activities. So I recommend it, highly recommend it.

Love it, I agree. You know, so you have over a decade's, uh, decades of experience here, but if you can go back and if, you know, if you had one piece of advice you would— you wish you had known, you would tell your, let's say, your 25-year-old self, what would you— what would you say to them?

Um, so first of all, I'm married for the second time, so probably I will tell my, my, uh, my younger self, meet this wife first, you know. But yeah, but I would say to myself, you know, enjoy the road, enjoy the— enjoy the way, enjoy the path, you know, because, uh, You know, we're talking about long-term relationship, and you know, on life you have you have failures and you have success, and it's all part of the journey. So trust the process. Don't rely just on your you know you know results. Not everything is results in life. Follow the way. You know, trust the process and the results will come. So if you just run for results, run for you know track records, sometimes you miss the fun during it. Or you make lots of more mistakes. So enjoy the mistakes, enjoy the failures, enjoy the success, and it's all part of your journey.

Easier said than done, right? A lot of people focus too much on the success side that they get caught up in the failure. So makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah, you gotta learn to enjoy it too. What are some of the biggest challenges you're currently facing in order to continue to grow your business and continue to build your authority in the space?

Well, I try to stay relevant all the time, you know. So I think the biggest challenge, not just for me, for every company exists decades, or for every mentor who exists decades, is to stay relevant and to turn to more audiences and more people will follow them and to be in more platforms. You know, for example, I'm 46 years old and I'm for myself, I don't use TikTok or use, you know, Instagram. But I am on TikTok and Instagram as Yaniv Zai because then I share good content because I realize that many of my clients there and younger clients are there, younger people and managers and CEOs of tech companies are there. So you need to adapt yourself all the time. You need to create yourself over and over and again. There is a good, let's say, Good thought and bad thought. You know, the bad thought is that you always need to market yourself. You know, you never— you know, if you stop marketing yourself, then people will start forgetting about you, and into this vacuum, more, more your competitors will come. But the good, the good result is that, that there is a way to do it. There is a formula. So if you do it again and again and again, you create yourself all the time, and then you grow your community and you get new clients. So the biggest achievement or the biggest challenge is to stay relevant over the years and to get more people to know you, even if they are 20 years younger than you.

Love it. Makes absolute sense. Who or what would you say are some of the best 3 resources? This can be books or mentors or people you follow in the space who you'd say have been most instrumental to your success over these last few years.

Well, I don't have just one because I learned from many, many mentors and I learned from many professionals like politicians, like stand-up artists, like, you know, lecturers, like, you know, CEOs. And I can name a few. For example, Jerry Seinfeld, the stand-up artist, Brendon Burchard, or Av Eker, you know, the mentors, Gary Vaynerchuk, the social media guy, even politicians like Trump or Obama. I learned many, many things from them. What to do, what not to do. It doesn't matter what my opinion is, but I look at people who talk in front of people. I look at people who lead other people. I look at people who succeed in You know, in their life. And I ask myself, what do I want to learn from them? What to do or not, and not what to do. So I don't have one mentor who I follow, you know, for decades, but I all the time, you know, every— we mentioned every expert is also a student, is first a student. So I try to be, you know, all the time student and to learn from others and, you know, to get inspired by many, many people.

Love it. You know, so we talked about a little bit, you know, failure and success, but, you know, I'd love to hear what does— what's your definition? What does success mean to you today, whether that's personally, business, financial, you know, life? There's no right answer.

Um, I will say that today success for me is, you know, have quality moments with my kids and my wife and to enjoy life and to live by my values. You know that I have values and I would like to live by them. I don't want to Work with people that don't share the same values like I am. You know, there is a great sentence that I like to use that I would for client that I want you as a client, but I don't need you as a client. Okay, meaning that I don't I don't need to work with everyone today. So I have you know if there is a client I don't feel like working with, I will you know happily move it to add to my you know to my to my to other people in the market. You know when And for example, if I don't like to have certain power to a certain calling, though, I won't work for them. So you don't need— we really need to work with anyone you don't want. So for me, success is that you create your own life, you choose your life, you choose who you're going to be with, and you enjoy life. And when you go to sleep at night, you know that you lived by your values and you did everything you could. So you enjoy with the results.

Love it. That's also a beautiful part of being an entrepreneur, right? You can pick and choose.

Yes.

So yeah, that's absolutely great. Love it. This has been great, Dr. Zaid. Would love to wrap this up and hear, you know, any final thoughts you wanna share, and then where can founders, anybody listening in, get in touch with you, learn more about you, what you do, as well as check out your book?

Yeah, so everyone would like to be a C-level leader in tech, you know, just put yourself at the front, in front of audience, in front of people, you know, and use as many platforms as possible to share your information, share your knowledge, Your good content. If you'd like to follow me, I have many more articles to to show you in my website drpersuasion.com drpersuasion.com and also you can check you can send me an email yaniv@yanivzaid.com y a n i v at y a n i v z a i d dot com I will I will answer any question you may have. And also check my website, 20M, and my book, The 21st Century Sales Bible, on bookstores, on Amazon, across North America. And I will be happy to, you know, to answer any question you may have and be in touch and provide more knowledge. If you like this 40 minutes, then you probably enjoy my other, you know, videos and books and lectures.

Absolutely. Love it. Love it. This is awesome.

And we'll include—

make sure to put all those links in our show notes, make sure you guys check it out, and thanks again, I really appreciate this and enjoyed this episode, thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Akeel, and very happy to be here, very honored to be on your podcast, thanks.

Thank you, cheers. Thank you all for watching this episode and joining SaaS District today. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for future episodes where we interview top leaders in the SaaS industry. If you're a SaaS company looking to grow and unlock the true value of your business, Get in touch with us at Horizon Capital and myself or one of our consultants will provide a free assessment to help you get there and hit your goals. If you have any feedback or suggestions for this podcast, please comment down below and help us improve our content for you all. Thanks again and see you on the next one.