Blaze Your Own Trail with Jordan Mendoza

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Thanks for tuning in to True Grit and Grace. I'm so grateful that you're here. Before we dive into this week's episode, I want to share something that I wish that I had when I first started out. So when I had this big dream of writing a book and I didn't quite know how to do it, but I really had this dream of doing it, I barely had any social media following. And all truth be told, I barely even knew how to post anything on Instagram. Fast forward to today where I've got a bestselling book thanks to you. You've made this podcast a top 1% podcast, and I have built my Instagram up to over 220,000 Followers, thank you. If you're following me there, I love being connected. So I want to share all the tips and tools that I've learned along the way because you can learn two different ways. You can learn from your failures, which can cost you a lot of time, money, energy, or you can learn from the experiences of others who are exactly where you are and they are where you want to be. So I've put together a mastermind with experts in their field of publishing books, motivational speaking, podcasting. Branding, and we're coming together and we're opening up our playbook and our little black books, and we're sharing everything that we've learned so you can time collapse your journey from point A to point B. So if you're a success-minded female and you're ready to level up, if you're ready to increase your influence impact so you can make a bigger income, this is the mastermind for you. We kick it off in Dallas at a 2-day event. It's a year-long experience, and then we have another 2-day event where you will get on stage and you will get to share your message and it's going to be videoed. We're going to have a photographer there, so you'll get lifestyle shots and stage shots. Just email me, amberly@amberlylago.com. All this information is in the show notes where you can also find truegritandgrace.com to get more details on the event. But email me if you're really serious about increasing your influence. We can get on a call and see if this is the right fit for you. So let's be unstoppable together. We need more female leaders stepping it up and having bestselling books, getting on the stage and sharing their message. I want to help you every step of the way. So just email me again, amberly@amberlylago.com. And now on to the show. Hey, welcome back to True Grit and Grace. I am so excited to introduce you to Jordan Mendoza. Y'all, he is a really good friend of mine. He— I feel like we were talking before we started recording. I feel like he's family. I work with him. I've done a podcast swap with him. I can't wait for him to share your— his wisdom. But I think you need to get a pen and a pad. I don't usually say this when I'm introducing someone, but you're going to want to take notes for this. He's the founder and CEO of Blaze Your Own Trail Consulting, where he helps service providers grow their business through strategic marketing, sales, and leadership consulting. Um, I think he's the king of LinkedIn. He has an incredible story of resilience, a heart of gold, and I am just so honored that you're here, Jordan. Thank you so much for being on True Grit and Grace and, and just being my friend. You help me every time I talk with you.

Hey, listen, it's, it's an honor, uh, to be here. Anytime I get to share my story and hang with cool people like you that are way cooler than me, it's always— it's a blessing. So thank you for having me on the show, and I can't wait to to get to know your audience a little bit and hopefully share some value with them, some little takeaways that they can implement and make some changes today.

Oh my goodness. Every single time I get to talk with you, I take notes. I have sticky notes all over my desk, and we just started talking right before the interview. We originally met when we both spoke at a virtual event for Heather Monahan, and I heard your story and I was immediately connected to just everything that you've gone through. And I think sometimes people, when they are going through some dark challenges or difficult times, they sometimes get stuck and they become bitter, they become angry, um, they become mean. And I'm like, you've been through so much growing up. You have a big family. But I really wanna talk about your journey like a little bit if we could. So people, I mean, people see you and they're like, oh my gosh, he's massively successful. He's got it all figured out. But you came. from a place where you didn't have a lot of money. And would you say that your mom was probably like where you learned resilience and grit from?

Yeah, yeah, no, 100%. Well, the first, the first correction I'll make is no one has anything figured out. Not me, not you. There's, there's no one that has it figured out. And anyone that tells you that they do, they're not telling the truth. Because we all fail every day. We all make mistakes every day.

And that's how we learn.

We're not humble enough to realize that, then then that's the first place that we need to start is we need to take a little of that ego and pride away. And once we can really realize that, that no one has it figured out, it makes life a lot easier for sure. So yeah. So a little bit about me. So Jordan Mendoza, of course, is my name. I was actually born and raised in Portland, Oregon, actually a little town called St. Johns. And I was actually raised by a mom that had one lung. And so when you mentioned, is she someone that inspired me and encouraged me and showed me how to handle adversity? And that would be 100% yes. And so where we grew up, we were pretty poor. And when I say poor, I mean I was the kid going to the store with food stamps. You know, I remember the orange and the brown and the green colored food stamps and how embarrassing it felt as a kid to hand over this Monopoly money essentially is what it felt like. And of course, they've upgraded those programs over the years and now there's debit cards and it makes, it kind of takes the stigma away a little bit. But, you know, when you're in it, and you're growing up in it, yeah, there's definitely a complex you get. And, you know, when you're not wearing the new clothes going back to school because, you know, you can't afford them, you got the same shoes from last year, or wearing Halloween costumes over and over again because it's all you can afford. So some of those things kind of can affect you. But my mom did a great way of just showing us kindness, showing us love. And even though we didn't have a whole lot of money, we did have a whole lot of that. She's a person, she had a great sense of humor, even in the face of adversity. And although she used oxygen for most of her life, she still was optimistic. She still tried to find ways to go out and provide for her family. She would go play bingo. She would go to the dog races. Like she had these little side hustles in the '80s and '90s to try to figure out how can she provide for her kids. And she never made excuses for her circumstance. You know, I can remember being about 7, 8 years old and she got really sick. She went to the hospital. And my only way of communicating, Amberly, was with a notepad because she had a tracheotomy. And I just remember just even the positivity through the notes that she would write me, it just meant a lot. She would say, hey, don't cry. Be strong. You know, we're going to get through this. Like that type of stuff. So I learned empathy at an early age because I got to see someone very close, my mom, suffering through things. But she just taught me that no matter what's going on, you don't have to look at the dark side. You can always, you know, keep that optimistic state of mind. And she's a woman that, you know, when she was born, they said, you probably won't live to 18. And they told my grandmother, you know, she probably won't be able to have any kids. And when I tell you, she did really well with the hand she was dealt. She lived to 54 years old and she ended up having 5 boys. And actually, crazy thing is our youngest brother, she had at 40 years old.

She did?

Just imagine that. She had at 40 years old. I remember getting the call and she said, I'm pregnant. We were all like, yeah, that's funny. That's funny, Mom. That's a joke. And sure enough, you know, 9 months later, we have a brother who's now 21 years old. So I mean, this— you want to talk about, you know, going against what someone told you and just making it happen, like, she was that person for me.

Yeah.

And so, so yeah, go ahead.

I mean, that, that just— it— I mean, I got teary-eyed when you were telling me the story about the taking the notes in the hospital, because that's how I communicated when I first got out of a coma, is I wrote on a notepad. And, um, my youngest daughter was and got an award in school for most empathy. And I think that when you have a parent that is going through that, that you do learn empathy, or you have the ability to, you know, learn compassion. And I think you have so much of that. Your mom passed away when she was 54. So how did your brother, who was only 14 when he lost his mom, how did he handle that?

Uh, not well.

I mean, because my daughter's 14 and I can't imagine how hard that—

I, I can tell you that she got sick in November of '11. I remember she— I remember the call like it was yesterday. She called me and she's like, hey, just want to let you know I'm in the hospital. I fell down. I think I'm going to be okay. They're going to run some tests. And that was the last time I heard her voice because she got sick. She got pneumonia. And then in the hospital, because of— she only had one lung, she lived with that. It was like the trifecta of bad things. So her kidneys started to fail. She had pulmonary edema. So the fluid— they couldn't get the fluid out of her lungs fast enough. That's how much fluid they were getting out of her body. So that caused her heart to weaken and start to fail. So ultimately everything started to shut down. And so from November to March when she passed, I was flying to Portland from Atlanta. I remember I was managing 558 units at the time. I had a team of 17 people. And then this happens. And I remember just flying from Atlanta to Portland, checking on mom, can't talk to her. She's like basically almost in a coma. And, and then I remember bringing the family out because we knew that she didn't have much time left. So February of '11, my youngest, who's now 11, and my 13-year-old and my now 17-year-old, we all flew out to Portland to really say our goodbyes. And man, that was tough going to the hospital, seeing her like she was. But I remember her saying to me, she She's like, I was like, hey, I'm glad that you got to see us. And she's like, yeah, all the kids, because at that point we had 3. And she got to see our youngest who was just 6 months old at the time. And so, but it was a special moment. And literally a couple weeks later, my brother calls me that she had passed away.

Hmm.

But, you know, I had to grow up real fast. I, for some reason, was, you know, put into that authority role with the doc, meeting with the doctors and having these phone calls. And so I can tell you this, During the time that all that happened, a lot of things happened at work. I actually got a demotion. They demoted me for poor performance. Well, they didn't, I don't think they, they didn't take the time to realize like what I was dealing with. But I can tell you, Amberly, and I want people to hear this, that demotion was the best thing that could happen to me because I needed that time. I needed that time to reflect and to deal with losing this person that was my best friend that I talked to twice a day. And now she was gone. I needed that time. And man, There were days I didn't remember driving to work. I don't remember really what happened during the day. And I don't really remember the drive home. And it was just this 6 months of fogginess, which I now know I was definitely depressed. I didn't want to admit it or really even talk to anybody about it. But it hurt. It was like a piece of me was gone. And I remember thinking like, what am I going to do with my life? Like I don't have mom there. Like this is the person that was encouraging me. You could do anything that you want. And man, it wasn't really until I started sharing her story, which came years after her she passed away, that was really when I started to unlock my gifts. Wow.

As you were talking, it reminded me of something that I've heard before, that pain pushes until your purpose and passion pulls you. And I feel like sometimes we go through these painful moments, and they really spark that passion and purpose in us to what we are going to do. So you were in the corporate world for what, 15 years?

Was it? Yeah, I was in corporate for 15 years. And this is the funny thing about corporate is like, if you look at my career prior to that, I mean, I've done every type of sales there were. Like my first job at 14, I sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. So I was the kid that would knock on your door and say, hey, would you like to buy the daily newspaper or the daily and Sunday or just the Sunday? And, and then you would sign up. Of course, no one reads the paper in 2022. But back in 1995, they did. And so I would literally literally go out and I would knock on 100 doors and apartments and neighborhoods a day. And man, that developed people skills. It enabled me to be able to read body language. It's, you know, I could, it helped me think on my feet. So I look back to even at 14, I was gaining skill sets that in 2022, plenty of people don't have. Plenty of people don't have, aren't personable. They don't know how to start a conversation. They don't know how to build rapport with people or relationships.

Do you know, I was just, I was talking about this. Sorry to interrupt. I just was talking about this with My daughter yesterday. So we were in the car and I was talking to her about a friend. I was asking her about a friend of hers, and I said, "You know, it was so bizarre, Ruby." I said, "She was on social media all the time, and she would, you know, post, and you would talk to each other for through DMs." I said, "But you would see each other at the barn, and she wouldn't even look at you or talk to you. It was like she had no people skills." And I think that's something that a lot of kids nowadays, because they're living through TikTok. or Snapchat or whatever social media, and they're not actually getting out there and talking to people and developing those people skills. Do you think that— I mean, how is it?

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I, I think that the, the best thing for kids these days is, you know, getting involved in some type of team sports or something that where there's fundraising involved, because that takes you actually going out and talking to humans, right? Because you're right, everyone's talking so digitally that there, there's no more human emotion. They're not experiencing what it actually looks like to communicate. And that's why when we introduce our kids to our friends, they look down and they're like, hey. You know? And it's like, of course they are because they're so used to just communicating digitally that it's really a lost art. People skills is a lost art. And if you don't have people skills, if you're not able to effectively communicate, you're not actually going to make it that far in the business world, right? Because it takes a level of communication. It takes you being able to read people's body language and understanding their fate, their— how their, uh, you know, dynamics are, because it really helps you out. Like, you can read things on people that, that maybe you can't hear audibly or, or verbally.

Yeah. And I mean, I was saying, you know, when we met, I immediately felt connected with you. Um, I think it's because we have experienced a lot of the same things, but also it's because you, you really pay attention. I can tell you pay attention to body language. You really really look at the person and figure out who they are, what they need, how you can serve them. And so I got to know you a little bit more when I was a guest on your show. And I have to say, y'all, he's the real deal. Like, what you see online and here on his show, he is that kind of a person in real life too. So I had messaged you and I was Like, hey, uh, I got COVID. Um, I'm okay. I can probably do your show. I've been looking forward to it. I just want to let you know my voice is a little froggy. And you're like, you know what, take rest, just rest, and we'll do it next week. I mean, you really care about people. So many people would just be like, okay, good. Well, I'll see you in an hour. We'll do this show. And it was like, you reminded me of importance of taking care of yourself so you can show up in a more impactful way. And I loved being on your show. I love your podcast. But you started out by sharing bits and pieces of your story and adding value on LinkedIn.

Yeah.

And then that just spread like wildfire. And now how many followers do you have on LinkedIn?

Yeah, we're almost 70,000.

Yeah.

And so, you know, I got active on LinkedIn in 2019. And it's funny, right? There's a lot of times we don't see things in ourselves that some other people see. And I know as a coach, I can see things in other people that they don't see. And so we always need that outside perspective. And so anyone watching or listening to this, if you don't currently have a coach, or if you've never invested in you, because that's ultimately what you're doing when you bring on someone that is where you want to be, is you're investing in yourself.

Mm-hmm.

And if you don't invest in you, nobody's going to invest in you, right? You've got to be willing to invest in yourself. So I had a coach and he's like, listen, you need to get active on LinkedIn. You need to share. Like I just kind of shared my story and, you know, things I've been through, situations. He's like, why aren't you telling people about that? Why aren't you out there? He's like, you're going to have a bigger brand than me one day. And Amberly, I don't know why, but I believed the guy. I was like, okay, this is going to be cool. And literally within 6 months of me showing up, putting out content, teaching, training, not selling a single thing but just trying to educate my network, I went from 7,000 to 20,000 followers in like 6 months. And then in 2020, I gained, I think, 40,000. I mean, it was just crazy. The growth was exponential. But, you know, I think there's a lesson here, right? When you're going out and coming from a place of value, when you're coming from a place of how do I leverage, how do I take what I know, leverage this information, and actually share it with people in hopes that they could actually get benefit from it? that's when things really changed for me because it wasn't about me. It wasn't about this growth. It's like, how do I actually invest in a community? And a big part of that was engagement. Like you mentioned this offline, like we have to engage with our audience. It's just, just imagine if you were speaking on stage, Amberly, right? And you get done with speaking on stage and people came up to you and you just walked right past them.

Mm-hmm.

You just got in your car and you just drove home. Like how many of them would show up to the next event?

And so see, I completely agree with you. And I mean, I had this billionaire— I was speaking at this event and we all gave like a free gift. I gave away a gratitude journal, he gave away a house. And so I didn't know who he was. I went up to him and I'm like, way to one-up me, dude. A house?

Wow.

You know? And we got to talking and he looked at my social media, he looked at Instagram, and he reached out and he's like, hey, I want to work with whoever you're working with for your Instagram. And I'm like, Uh, that would be me. And he goes, no, who's doing your, your branding and how, you know, built your audience for you? I'm like, that would be me. And he goes, how did you do it? And I said, look, I really don't know. He's like, I want to hire you. I said, I don't really know what I'm doing. He goes, but that's the beauty of it. Like, you've built a community. I had the same intention as you had on LinkedIn. Instagram is just where I seem to get more engagement. But I intentionally was trying to add value and see how I could help people. And he goes, well, how did you build your audience? I said, I listened to them. I respond to them. And even my husband would be like, you can't respond to everybody. And I'm like, but I am gonna do my best to respond to everybody who, because I know how it felt when I was in my darkest place, when, you know, I had like a couple of hundred followers on Instagram and somebody would actually respond back to me, how it made me feel. So I don't want to ever lose sight of that. And so I think it's really important not to post and ghost, like you really take care of your community. And that's what you have done on LinkedIn. And it shows like you don't have just all those followers, you have really engaged people who are commenting on every single thing that you share, but you do add such value. But also, Jordan, I just have to say, Like, you're one of these people who really is a true collaborator too. So can we talk about the importance of how to build? So you said, okay, you're giving value, but do you think that collaborating with other people is an incredible way to grow your brand as well?

Oh, 100%. Yeah, collaboration is key because here's, here's the thing about collaborating. If, if you're adding value to someone else or to someone else's audience, that person is going to remember. And so it becomes this trickle effect. Like, you know, if I go, if someone invites me on their podcast like you, right? I'm gonna share after this airs, I'm gonna share that with my audience. And so now you get introduced to a whole new audience. Mm-hmm.

Right?

Because I can tell you this, and someone may need to write this down, but we're not meant to do life alone. Like we're truly meant for connection. We need other people. And the quicker that you can realize that you can't do it on your own, you will collaborate early and often, and it will feel natural. Because for me, in the beginning, I'm one of those people that it's very hard. Like, you complimenting me is hard. And my wife tells me all the time, she's like, you could give it all day, but taking it's another thing. Like, I have a very hard time getting compliments from people, but I also like feeling valued. So it's one of those things where it's my issue. It's not, it's not yours or someone else's. But once you can realize that other people and letting other people into your circle and adding value to someone else's circle is ultimately what helps you build community, then again, you're going to do it a lot more often.

Yeah. And you know what, though? I do remember, like, the people who I've had them on the show, and I've done, you know, 140-something podcast episodes. And I remember the people who, like, didn't at least— like, I'm promoting them and promoting them and promoting them. They're on my website, they're on my social media all over the place. I'm putting them in my story. And they don't even like share it in their story. I don't ask them to share, but I remember like when people share that episode, or, you know, you just remember, you do remember the people who treat you good. And we were talking about before we started recording, like just your character and building these relationships and all that you do for people. That sometimes comes as a huge opportunity. later in life. I mean, you were just telling me about this new exciting job that you have. You haven't even officially announced it, but I just want to say congratulations right now that you are like growing your business so much. And so I feel so grateful to get to work with you. Don't forget that you've got me. I want to be on the team of Jordan Mendoza. So tell us about this new opportunity that you were just offered.

So first off, thank you for for the opportunity to mention it. It's very exciting. It's something that's going to be not just a game changer for me, but it's going to help a lot of other people out. I think that all the knowledge that we accumulate over time, at the end of the day, it's not for us. It's for us to share with other people in the hopes that they can take a little piece of it and grasp it and use it to become a better person, to become a more successful business. So yeah, you mentioned building relationships. So a buddy of mine, we've been friends now for almost 2 decades. And it's funny because we've stayed connected. You know how you're cordial, you text each other, and you stay connected on social media. But when we worked together in '04, that's the last time we worked together. And now the fact that I've just accepted the position as Chief Marketing Officer for Rhino Web Studios, it's a New Orleans-based web design and SEO design company that also is adding a leg of digital marketing and is getting ready to franchise. it's a 21-year-old business that I now get to help grow and expand. And, you know, what an exciting opportunity. I don't know a business owner out there that has a website that may need some tweaking to it, that may need something added to it so that they bring in more traffic for their business. I think that's most of us out there. And matter of fact, our team is going to be redoing mine because they looked at mine and they're like, you need a better website, you know. So—

And you know what, Jordan, I was just looking at yours. Yours, I was like, oh my gosh, I am not kidding. I looked at your website and I was like, oh wow, he's— I need to add all these different podcast platforms. The way you have it set up is, I thought, brilliant.

And so that's my podcast website. Yeah, so, so that, that podcast website, I, I think it is, it's really well set up. But I can tell you this, so that website itself, for anyone that's listening that maybe you have a podcast or you want to start a podcast, I actually use a company called Podpage. If you go to podpage.com and Amberly get that Guess how much I pay a month for that podcast website?

How much? Wait, what is it called again?

Podpage.com. I pay $15 a month for that podcast website.

Now, how do you— do you upload the— or do you have—

it's all— everything's automated. Everything's automated. You have your RSS. So when we offline, I'll just show you how to do it, Amberly, because you definitely need that one. It's going to enhance it again. But these are things like when it comes to me, you know, Amberly's a client and I help help her on one specific platform, but she—

Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about that. Yeah, we can talk about that. We can definitely talk about that.

Oh yeah, because I love it.

Here's the thing, Amberly, like, and I told you this offline, like, even though you hired me for a particular platform, if I see an area that we can help, like our agency can help you, I'm going to tell you that. Does that make sense? You know, I'm not one of those people, because there's a lot of places to be like, for an extra $1,000, like, I'll give you this trade secret and this. But at the end of the day, you're family. Like, you're a client. And so if I can help add value, I'm going to help add value. I'm not going to try to nickel and dime you because my goal is to elevate, not, you know, bring you down and, and get into your profit margins. That's not what the, the point is.

Well, uh, y'all, seriously, every time I get to talk to Jordan, I always learn something new. And I want to just say, you know, I have daily people that reach out and tell me, oh, I can help you with your Instagram. I can help you with your TikTok, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know, I think I've got the Instagram. I'm always learning, but that's kind of my main hub. And we were talking, you were teaching me some things about LinkedIn that I actually want to go into a little bit. But I hired Jordan, what, a week ago?

Yeah, a week ago. Yeah, about a week.

A week ago to help me with TikTok because it is really impossible to be in all places and do it all. And I was like, yeah, I I like TikTok. I just don't have the bandwidth to be posting there. And Jordan was like, that's part of what my company does. I can help you. So if you head over to my TikTok, you will, and Jordan's too. He's like a freaking rockstar, rockstar verified TikTok user. Um, he started helping me with TikTok and I've already grown. And I think you were saying what, I've got like 40,000 views since last week.

Yeah, we have. Yeah, we've had, I think, 40,000 views. We've— you've increased in share. I think we had 45 shares. Your followers have gone up, uh, 200, about 200 in the first week of working together.

Yeah, but the thing is, is I— because I totally trust you, like a millionth percent, I was just like, yeah, here is my password for my TikTok. And yeah, I totally trust whatever you're gonna do is gonna work. That's really hard to come by, to find someone who is really good at what they do, and you totally trust them. That's not something that I don't give passwords out like to, to anyone, but I'm like, oh yeah, Jordan's family, here's my password, whatever you think is best. And you've helped.

Just so you guys know, I offered her, I offered her a different way. And I offer it to every client because we use a company called LastPass for password security. But yeah, she was just like, hey, just here, just type it in. Like, I'm not really— here's my password. So for those of you out there, you know, there are ways where you can share it with giving us the passwords. I just want to point that out.

Okay. And what is that again? It's called LastPass.

LastPass. LastPass.

LastPass.

Another great resource, guys. If you have a virtual assistant, if you've got an assistant, if you've got a team member and you're like, you know what, I trust them, but like, I just, I don't want this information out there, you can actually share it with them and they can get in without actually knowing that information. So again, that's, that's something, uh, it's not just passwords. You can do that with, you know, know, bank accounts. There's so many different things you can do. And so it's a great platform I recommend for any small business owner that's starting to build or has people on your team.

Yeah. And that's really important because, you know, I was just set— I just set up a new landing page for my mastermind. And, you know, to give your Stripe account, you know, on my landing page, there's a Stripe account, and my tech guy was like, you know, to give your passwords out, it's kind of scary. You really have to trust that person. So this way, even if you trust them, That it protects your information even more. But also, we were just talking how we got into this, and we have a lot of listeners that they want to go after and do their side hustle, their passion full-time. So what you're saying is start to share on your platforms, adding value, get your LinkedIn dialed in.

Like, yeah, I'm just not mad at you. I wanna just give a ton of value if, if that's okay. I, I wanna literally give— Yeah.

I mean, cuz I changed my bio. On LinkedIn because of you.

Yeah, I want to give your audience— this is the time, guys, if you've got a notepad, I would grab it because I'm literally going to give you the playbook of how you can exponentially increase what you're doing on LinkedIn. And because, because here's the thing, it doesn't matter if you're on LinkedIn, if you're on TikTok, if you're on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, where you have to start all the time is with your profile. Because if your profile is not optimized, you shouldn't really be putting out content because Because if they— if your profile's not optimized and they come back to view it, they may actually leave. And so I always tell people, it's just like when you're building a house, you've got to start with a firm foundation. If that foundation is faulty, that house eventually is gonna tumble over. You're gonna have to spend a lot of money on repairs. So here's the playbook. So the first thing I would look at today is look at that banner image you have on LinkedIn. And I would think about Does this image truly add value to what my goals are on the platform? Do I have a clear call to action on what you know I want my viewers to do next? And you've got to have a picture that's different than your actual profile picture. And then your profile picture is really step two. Look at that profile picture and say to yourself, "Is this me today in 2022 or 2023?" Whenever you're gonna hear this episode, is this me? Does this look like like who I am? Because if it looks like you in college, or maybe you've got, you know, the suit on, but you never wear a suit anymore, or you've got the business clothes on, but maybe you wear a t-shirt all day, or you wear a polo now, make sure that it's a true representation of you. The last thing you want someone to do is be like, I can tell that's from 12 years ago. I can tell. Oh my God.

I've gotten on a call, an interview with someone before, and I didn't recognize them. They looked totally different.

That's exactly what's going to happen. So So step one, get your banner dialed in, make sure it's a different photo of you, you've got a clear call to action. If it's a quote, you know, just something that tells people what you want them to do next. Here's the thing, guys, LinkedIn gives you a billboard for free. Do you know how expensive billboards are? Have you ever priced them, Amberly? Like, they're not cheap to get your banner up there, and you get it free, guys, it's free. So make sure that banner's dialed in, make sure your picture is you. The next thing you want to do is look at your headline text. So that's all the text that says like mine says, I teach service providers how to build authority and monetize social media. So I want that first line to tell the reader exactly what I do and who I serve. Outside of that, you want to actually add in keywords that are actually contextual to who you serve and what you do. So on mine, you'll see coach, you'll see featured in Yahoo Finance. I'm just trying to mention something credible. It may say Uh, podcast host, you may see speaker. So any words that you want to be found for, because again, everything that you put on LinkedIn, it all helps you rank the— on the SEO of the platform.

Okay, I have a quick question.

One big search engine.

Yep. So with the banner, so I'm going back to the banner still. So with the banner, you're saying have a call to action on your banner. So right now on LinkedIn, I have like— I've got a picture of my podcast Of me on stage, of me with on for the COVID of Forbes, like some things that if people— and me on the center of the stage of the, you know, infamous red circle for a TED Talk. So it— if you glance at it, it's like, oh, okay, she's got a podcast, she's a speaker.

Yeah, she's a notable figure, right? 100%. I love it. Okay, so I would put on there now— yeah, I like that. Now what I would add to it is what do you want people to do? Do you want people to subscribe to your podcast? So put subscribe to True Grit and Grace on all platforms. That could be a call to action. It could be, uh, ladies only, sign up for my mastermind in, in my featured section.

And then I'm gonna do that. Okay, sign up for the Unstoppable Life Mastermind on the—

here's the thing, guys, 100%. Now that banner, guess how often that could be changed? Every hour, every day, every week, right? There's no rules to this stuff. So you want to have it in accordance to what your goals are for that time period. And right now, Amberly's goal is she wants to fill the seats. Guys, there's not many spots left, by the way. So if you're interested in the—

A couple of few.

Ladies only, if you want to mastermind, make sure you send her a message on Instagram. Message her the word mastermind if you're listening to this episode because you guys aren't going to want to miss that. But so, right? That's your goal now. It's a mastermind. So why not put something about that? And now most people didn't realize too, on LinkedIn, under your follower count, if you go into hit the little pencil icon to edit, it, you can now enter a link in there. So you can have the link to your mastermind application right there. And you could tell them, click the link below to apply to my mastermind. Again, you got to tell people what to do, folks. If you're not telling people what to do, they don't know what to do.

Okay.

That's why on TikTok, we added that call to action because we want to tell people, hey, you can apply for my mastermind. Okay? So again—

Okay. So tell people where they can put the link again. Is that—

Yeah. There's a couple of places.

Okay.

There's a couple places. So there are really 3 places on your profile that you can add a link. So you can actually add it right under your follower count. If you're on LinkedIn desktop, you can add a website that'll appear right under there. And that's just by hitting the pencil icon on your profile. And then you scroll to the bottom, it'll say website link, you just enter that link. Okay. The next place you can enter it is on your featured section. So your featured section is basically a place, it's kind of like a carousel of curated content. So like for mine, I'm driving traffic to my newsletter, right, first. And then the second one is my business website and then my podcast. So again, you think about your goals and objectives and what you want there and where you want people to find you, if that makes sense.

Okay, so under my featured section, you had told me and I followed your direction, you're like, you— and, and y'all, I'm just learning. Like, I'm always— I love learning and everything's constantly changing. So you were like, oh yeah, you have too many featured things. You need to have like 3. So I deleted some, and now I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna add the video of the mastermind there as my first.

There you go. Yeah, again, because here, here's the thing, guys, your profile is always the place where people are gonna go. They're always gonna go there, right? If they, if they come across your content, what are they gonna do next? They're gonna go to your profile.

Yeah.

And I had— yep, that's why the foundation is important.

Yeah, I had somebody say, well, um, I was redoing my, my bio and it was like a Friday night late at night. My husband was— he came in my office and he's like, do you ever stop working? And I'm like, but I'm rewriting my bio and I actually enjoy doing stuff like that, you know, like it. And I really utilized all the, the words that I could in my bio. Um, but I had somebody say Well, nobody really goes and looks at your bio or your about. And I'm like, yeah, they do.

I said, I look at that. I'll tell you why they don't. It's because most people don't write it well. Most people write it like a resume. So of course, they're not going to look at that. But if you can write it from a storytelling perspective, from the first person and not the third, okay, so this is you telling, and you have to have a strong hook. I mean, think about any article that you read. Think about when you're at the grocery store, and you see the headlines on magazines, like you want it to pop out to people. So if you read my first line, I can tell you exactly what it says. It says, growing up with a mom that had one lung taught me a lot about what real adversity was. So right there, if someone reads that—

And yours is so well written. I looked at yours to go into mine.

They're going to keep reading, right? Now, how— what did it keep you wanting to read more? Again, that's the question I would ask yourself. Is that first line going to keep people reading more? Because if it's not, then yeah, I can see why people are skimming past your profile because it doesn't add value. There's no context. Because here's the thing. People want to know who you are. Right? On LinkedIn, are we trying to deal with robots or human beings? It's humans. So the more that they can relate to your story and your story is tremendous, all the adversity, all those things, the things that happen, then they're actually going to want to hit that connect button. Then they're going to want to actually reach out and maybe connect with you offline or maybe work with you. But if it's, if it's cookie cutter, if it's corporate, if it's all your accolades and it doesn't actually give deeper context into who you are, of course they're gonna skim by.

Yeah. And you guys have to go check if you are just, if you're just starting your LinkedIn, or even if you've had a LinkedIn profile for a long time, I'm telling you, go to Jordan Mendoza's LinkedIn profile and use that as an example of what you should do. But also, I have to say that you actually have a course where you work with people and, you know, you work— that's how I started working with you on TikTok. And I really would love to work with you on LinkedIn as well because I want to build that up. But you actually walk people through and you are amazing.

Yes.

Just when we got on Zoom, I'm like, how'd you do that? How'd you share your screen like that? How did you— wow, how did— and you're like, oh, I just do this. And, and you have this beautiful course set up where you teach people, which I, I think that's— it's not just good for the individual but would be beneficial to someone's entire team. So do you offer it for entire teams?

Yeah, we do enterprise coaching. Yeah, absolutely. If someone's got a big big marketing team, because some companies have 5, 6 people in their marketing team. Well, that marketing team, if they're not all creating content, they're missing out, right? They're missing out because no one wants to hear from the company, guys. And if you don't know this by now, you're going to learn it. But no one wants to hear from the corporate company. They want to hear from the people that work at the company because that's what really makes up a business. And so if when I work for my property management me putting out content about mindset, emotional intelligence, like sales, helping people, that actually helped that brand grow because the company got associated with me 100%. And I'm out there teaching and coaching on behalf. And so yeah, if there's a marketing team, perfect for that. If you're a solopreneur or maybe you've just got an assistant, perfect for that. And here's the cool part about my program is when I first launched it, it was free. I was literally out, I was literally coaching people, putting them through this program for free because I wanted to see, is it structured right? Is this actually going to work? Are people really going to get results? And so once people started having success, I put a price tag on it. And then now since then, it's actually, it's doubled. Really, it's gone up a bunch more than double since I launched it. But again, it's all based off results because now I can confidently say that I can teach anybody how to go from optimizing their profile to actually bringing in revenue for their business in 90 days. And it's very structured. So what I learned in corporate is they do this fire hose approach where they turn on the fire hose, they shove it down your throat, and they turn it on full blast.

Mm-hmm.

And we can't learn like that. We're not designed to learn like that as humans. So each session that I teach, we literally cover one topic a week. Okay? You learn about the information and then you get homework. And the way it's structured like that is I'm not just your coach, but I'm also your accountability partner. Like, I'm the one that's making sure, because we're not going to move forward in the program until you're actually caught up. And if you do it sequentially in order, by the end of that 12 weeks, you now have a system and a process of how to actually bring in organic leads for your business. And so if you're listening to this and you're a service provider, you offer any type of service, if you've got got a podcast, if you've got, if you're a coach, this program is for you. And literally, you will start to see growth exponentially by the first 6 weeks. Matter of fact, one of my clients just texted me the other day. And he said, since we've been working together, and we just finished week 7, his followers on LinkedIn have grown 35%. And he's added over 200 new email subscribers to his email list. And that's literally by week 7. That's by week Yeah.

And, but the thing is, like, what I love that you share is that you used to do this for free. And I, same thing, I used to speak for free until I really like started doing it more and more and practice and practice and built that up. Same thing with my mastermind. That's how the Unstoppable Life Mastermind even started, was I was, I, I love bringing women together and helping and seeing them grow. And then I'm like, oh wow, they're really getting results. And I really need to make sure I'm putting even more into this and adding about even more value. And that's how it grew. But I think it's really important. I would rather learn from somebody who has had experience in what it's like to build something from the ground up.

100%.

And all the things they've learned along the way. And that's why I chose you to help me with my TikTok. And, and y'all, I can say, so he's helping me with TikTok. And again, what you said earlier is so important. Invest in yourself, get a coach, hire your— work on your strengths and, and hire your weaknesses.

Yeah.

And so I'm like, man, Jordan is rocking it on TikTok. I want to do that too. So I'm like, gonna hire you. But I will say, y'all, that just— I've just hired him to do that for me. Every single time I talk to him, he's like, oh, Amberly, let me help you with your newsletter on LinkedIn. What, you want me to help you with that? You just offer. That's how you are. And I can tell you genuinely want to see people grow. Before we got started, I just have to tell y'all the kind of person he is. So I'm telling him, I was like, I am so glad we met because now I have somebody to refer all these ladies I have in the mastermind. I can refer them to you to help with their website. And I was genuinely coming from a place of Woo. Thank God I got somebody I can trust. And you're like, well, I have a community on Facebook. I know you haven't launched your mastermind yet. Let's get on my Facebook group and go live. I mean, that is just the kind of person you are. And so y'all, if you— and I don't usually get on the podcast and like really promote courses or promote— I am telling you, he is gold. Every— like, he will help you. Whether it's LinkedIn, TikTok, website, anything. He's amazing and trustworthy. Um, so yes, I just have to give you a huge shout out for that because you've helped already. You've— since I met you, we've built this relationship over— what was it, maybe 2 years ago that I met you?

Yeah, probably initially. And then I think we spoke probably, uh, 8 months ago maybe.

Yeah, we've just like kept in touch over this time, but, um, I, it's really, we've just grown the relationship and now I feel like I get to text or talk all the time now. I really appreciate you. And since I've met you and started working with you with TikTok just in the last week, I have updated my LinkedIn bio. I'm now, you know, I changed the feature section. I am now gonna change my banner and have a call to action. I mean, I've been taking notes while you've been talking, and I'm also gonna add in my first line. Y'all, who— tell the reader who I serve and what I do.

100%. Yeah.

And now, would you think— do you— which, which platform, in your opinion, is the most— if you could only choose one platform, what would it be?

So I— if I could choose one platform today, just knowing what I know, for anyone to get started, it would be LinkedIn. And, and because it's Google searchable, or what? Here's the— there's a bunch of reasons, but I think the main reason is the 2 platforms where the organic reach is the highest right now is TikTok and LinkedIn. Those are the 2. But here's the thing with LinkedIn is that, you know, the average salary is close to 6 figures now in 2022. So if you're a business owner and you're looking for an audience that has the money, it's important to pay you for your services, it's not going to be Facebook, right? I mean, Instagram might bring you some business, but LinkedIn, the people actually have the money to spend. They have the, you know, expendable income, but they're also business-minded already. So you're essentially bringing the content to the people that need it and can pay for it. So that's why I would tell people, if you don't have a strategy on LinkedIn, if maybe you haven't been there since the last time you got your last promotion or updated your resume, that the platform has changed. It's no longer just that job search place. It's a place where in just 3 short years, I used to go from the guy that had 7,000 connections and 5 people would watch my videos to now almost 70,000. And we're doing a million views every quarter just with my personal brand. And so if a million views a quarter, if that's something that you think would add value to your brand, then that would be a reason. And again, I'm nobody special.

Yeah, you are.

Here's what I did do is I showed up and I showed up and I put in the reps and I figured things out and I failed a bunch. And I fumbled around. And so now I get to share not only the stuff that I learned, but what not to do. Right? And that's what, and you mentioned it earlier, I tell clients all the time, you have to be a practitioner at what you do.

Hmm.

You know, I wouldn't want someone that didn't have a degree be my doctor because that's the process you have to go through to become a doctor. You need all that skillset. So just like I wouldn't want, you know, a dentist to change my oil in my car. Probably not the best oil change person, right? So you want to find someone that has been where you want to be. is doing what you want to do and that can help you get there.

Yeah. And I mean—

And again, whether that's me or somebody else, like I always go to the expert because there's plenty. Listen, guys, let's be very transparent. I'm a terrible cook. You don't want me building the shelf or putting anything together. I'm terrible at math. Like so there's a lot of things I don't have talents and abilities in. I kind of stay in my lane. Like I try to only focus. I'm really, I'm good at building relationships, at sales, social media, systems and processes. I'm your guy. Anything else, find somebody else. And I think when you can get there, when you can understand where your talents and your gifts and your abilities are, and you can go full in on that, that's where the magic starts to happen.

Heck yeah. I mean, and that's why like I stay in my lane, my social media, what it comes naturally, what I have fun with, what I actually love doing is Instagram. You know, I teach people how to optimize their Instagram. And I've had people in my previous mastermind that were like, well, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do reels. I'm like, you have to get on and just practice.

Yep.

I was like, you have to start. And that's how you learn what works, what doesn't work. And I leave my really crappy posts up that when I first started my Instagram that hardly have any likes because I want people to see.

Yeah.

We all start from somewhere, but that's how we learn and we grow is we start. So I, look, I appreciate you going over time a little bit. We've— we— I, I could seriously talk to you all day. I just have a few more questions for you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, do you have time for a couple more questions?

Oh, 100%.

Okay, thank you so much. So like, there are a lot of people right now that are kind of freaking out. Like, the market is not so great, people are getting laid off, people are feeling stuck. And there might be some people out there that actually have a job, but they are so unhappy and miserable, and they want to do— they want to go after their passion. like you have, like you're like done with the corporate, I'm gonna be full-time entrepreneur, where should they start first of all as far as like building a business, doing that? What's the first thing that they should do to start, you know, going after their purpose?

Yeah, 100%. No, great, great question. And so I'll just tell you what I did, right? I mean, I was working in corporate. I mean, there was a time, Amberly, where I thought I was going to retire at Gables Like that's how good things were going. I was getting promotion. Like everything was going great until it wasn't. That's usually how it works. And so what I would tell you is if you've got a passion, if you've got skillset, if you notice you've got strength in a certain area, the best thing you can do is activate those gifts, the talents, and the strengths. And so what I did is as a side hustle, I just started messaging people and saying, hey, I've been on this platform for a little bit, like with LinkedIn, and I'd love to jump on a call and see if I can give you any advice? And then people would say yes, and I would jump on these calls. And it actually took my wife at some point. She came down to my office one time and she's like, man, you're on a lot of calls. Are any of these people paying you? Right? As the smart, brilliant woman she is. And I was like, no. She's like, well, if you want to have this as a business, you've got to start charging. And she had a really, really great point. And so from there, I said, I, you know, started to put a price tag on it and people started paying and people started getting results. And that's really how I built that whole program. So what I would say is figure out what it is that you want to do. Okay? Kind of map it out. Map out what it looks like. What service can you provide and what are the deliverables? Like what can you actually deliver on? And then start coaching people for free. Take, you know, providing that service for free because what's going to happen is those people that got it free, they still paid me and they paid me in their time. They paid me in them putting in the work and they paid me with the feedback and the testimonial. So they paid me with a written review that said, Jordan helped me with XYZ. And a lot of times that's worth more, you know, than what they would have paid me for the thing.

Yes, that is. I remember when I did my very first mastermind and my husband thought I was kind of crazy because I rented out this beautiful house in Malibu, which cost a fortune, had it catered, hired a videographer, and a photographer, and everybody got up and did their talk. And what I provided was an edited video for them to share on their social media and a full-on photo shoot for them to have fresh pictures to use for their social media. They were so happy and they got so much out of that. And I got the best testimonials that I was able to use their testimonials of the person who launched their YouTube channel, their podcast, who had a bestselling book on Amazon, all the things that they did throughout this experience. And I use those testimonials. So there's something— you gotta start. And, you know, I think a lot of people think that they have to start and they have to put this huge price tag on things. And you bring up such a good point that like, just start. And also, I think that builds your confidence, don't you?

Oh, 100%. And I give this advice to my clients all the time. I always say sell it before you build it. Okay, so you can sell People sell ideas all the time. How do you think any company ever got started? It was just a thought. It was an idea. But if you have an idea with action, an idea with a framework of what you want to be able to do, and you can sell that, you can sell that to people. Like my program, right? I sold it before I built it. I sold it to people. And then I actually built out the actual framework and the system afterwards. Yeah.

Yeah, well, you have a beautiful presentation. I was like, I mean, I was so impressed. I was like, oh my gosh, you present this so beautifully that I could imagine anybody that sees it would be like, yep, sign me up.

And that's the thing, people need structure. What we need most in order to learn is we need things to be sequential, we need to be told what to do, and we need a little bit of structure. So if you can provide that That takes all the anxiety out of it for people. It takes all the effort. They're like, okay, we're going to do this, this, and this, and this is what I have to do this week. Right? So it gives people objectives and also small wins because as you start doing this, that essentially becomes a checklist. So again, my client by week 6, he's like, holy cow, we've done this, this, and this. I didn't even know he was doing this. He kept a spreadsheet. He's like, you've gone up 30%. Well, actually, Nope, it's now 34%. Like, he's keeping track of what's happening and he's seeing the results of his efforts.

I'm terrible at spreadsheets.

Yeah, I am too. I'm not a spreadsheet guy. But again, this is something he decided to do on his own because he wanted to see his ROI. Like, what am I getting out of this money that I've invested? Right? Which is important. And so again, now I can show him all the analytics and all of that, but the fact that he actually is investing in did it, that, that also, you know, is a huge advantage for him because he's keeping tabs, you know, he's making sure that he's doing what he needs to do. And as he's doing it, he's seeing the fruit of that.

I'm amazed at all you do. Like, oh my gosh, how do you keep up with everything? Like, it's a lot, like, just with your own social media, with your podcast. Y'all head over to Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. It's an amazing podcast. You've had huge people on your show, but keeping up with your podcast and your business and all your social media. And then I'm like, I don't know how many people's social media you're running, but you're doing a great job with mine. How do you balance out all that you do between that and your kids, your wife, your family time?

Yeah, well, I think it's, you know, if something's important to you, you figure it out. I'm not the only one. I've got people on my team. I've got people that help support me that, you know, they do an amazing job. You know, behind every great person there's usually a team of even better people, you know. So yeah, it's so much about the team that helped me, that keep me on track. I've got an amazing wife that's an awesome support, and she does amazing things with— to be able to let me have the time to be able to do this. So, you know, we can never do anything alone. I think I mentioned that earlier, like we're people that we're meant for connection, but we're also meant not to do things by ourselves, you know, because when, when you do things on your own, that's usually when you run into more problems because you're not getting feedback. You're not bouncing ideas off of other people. So the biggest advice I can give someone that's just starting is don't try to do it alone. We moved to Georgia 5 years ago. I started going to this Wednesday entrepreneurs group. Guess who wasn't an entrepreneur? I wasn't, but I knew I wanted to be one. So what did I do? I surrounded myself with people that had businesses. One guy owned, you know, 8 collision centers. Another guy has managed the largest flavor company in the world. Like, you know, so these are people that have been there, they've done it. But they've also, a lot of them were bankrupt at one point and built themselves back up. A lot of them, you know, divorced. Like, so I've got to surround myself with real humans, real people that I get to be around in community and immerse myself. So by the time I was ready to jump out on my own, guess who was there to support me. Guess who was there to say, you're ready, Jordan. You've got this. And so if you don't have a group of people around you that are there, that are there to fight for you when you're down but are also there to lift you up when you're succeeding, that community is everything for me because I've got people that are thinking about me, that are praying for me, that are thinking about my business, that are referring people to me. And so if you don't have that, that's something where I would start. You know, start there. Get people that you can confide in, that, that, you know, if you have a hard thing you're going through, that they can be there to support you through that. Because at the end of the day, without community, it's very hard to, to move and have progress.

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I mean, even before I moved to Dallas, I had a church set up, like where I was going to go to church. I needed a community of faith-filled entrepreneurs. This church has a lot of entrepreneurs. I had a barn for my daughter so she could be around all the horses. Horse Crazy Girls and, and have her community kept my sober community. I could not stay sober if I did not have that accountability and that support. And so I think it's so important. And sometimes I had one person tell me one time, she's like, oh well, you're really lucky you have community. I'm like, no, your hard work puts you where your blessings can find you. Like, you have to be in a community where you're giving as much value as you're taking. Like, don't be a taker, be a giver, and things will come to you. And find your community. If you can't create Create one. Like, I have communities on Instagram, like women that I have kept in touch with for 5 years. We started when I had a couple of hundred followers, and we still send each other's direct messages in a community on, on Instagram. You can create a community on Facebook. I know you have a community on Facebook that I'm a part of. What's the name of that community?

Yeah, it's really easy to find. It's called Jordan's Social Media Growth Can anybody join? Anybody can join. Yeah, I think it's invite. So you've got to be invited to join, but we can get that link somewhere, you know, for you to share with your audience. But literally, it's every day of the week, I'm putting out a piece of content that's meant to inspire everyone in the group. I go live one day a week, and then I invite amazing people like Amberly to do guest spotlights. So if you're a business owner, If you're an author, a speaker, if you have a podcast, this group's amazing because every month I invite someone else to come share their story and talk about what they're going through, you know, and what their business does. So the goal is really to help everybody grow. You know, I've been fortunate to grow a large audience, and so I want to be able to take that and show other people that if I can do it, you know, if a guy that grew up super poor, you know, went through some hard things— we didn't really talk about some of the adversity. Oh, there might be a part 2. There might be a part 2 for this. But if I can make it, guys, anybody can make it. That's all I'll tell you. Because I've gone through some really hard things that most people would look at any of the circumstances and they may look at life differently. Because of my mom, you know, because of key players in my life, I've been fortunate to stay positive even throughout some of the darkest times.

Yeah. And I think we should have a part 2 and talk about just perspective and mindset.

Oh, I'd love it. Yeah, I'd love it.

I mean, I kind of selfishly have been asking you all these questions that I want to know about, you know, LinkedIn and social. In your Facebook group, I think it's brilliant that you do this. So every day you share something. Are you going live every day or is it—

No, just one day a week. Yeah, there's a post every day. So every day you can expect some type of content. So it might be, you know, like Thursdays we do Thankful Thursday, Wednesdays Wisdom Wednesday. So every day of the week has a theme. And again, what am I doing, Amberly? I'm literally modeling what you should be doing with your own brand. I'm literally giving you the playbook on what you should do daily. Because here's the thing, you know, and you know this, right? When you stop posting, it takes time to warm your audience up again. It takes time to get people back up. So like, you'll notice if you go on vacation and you're not someone that likes to, you know, post content, when you get back, it's like, oh, there's crickets for a couple of days because you're having to show people that you're back again. And so this is a way to show in its truest form what it looks like to show up day in and day out for your community and try to encourage and motivate and inspire. Now I get days where some— not a single personal comment, and that's fine. It doesn't stop us from continuing to put stuff out because that's real life. That's the real world. You may have something that doesn't take off, and that's okay. Because if you can just inspire one, if you can inspire one person a day, think about the exponential increase and impact that that can have.

And sometimes you don't even know. There are people that I have no idea that they're even following me. or that they see anything that I post, and because they don't comment. And then I will run across them in real life and they will whisper, hey, that post about the sexual abuse really helped me, like, let go of the shame. Like, you never know who you're gonna inspire.

100%.

But I— you, Jordan, you have inspired me in so many ways. I think we need a part 2 so we can share your story because Because we didn't even get into the part about the cops and— Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll definitely have a part 2. I think everybody should save this, take notes, go update your LinkedIn profile, start a Facebook private group so you can build your own community and, and add value to other people. And go follow Jordan Mendoza on social media, on TikTok, it's Jordan Mendoza. But you also have the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast and you have a separate TikTok account for that. So all the links for him in the show notes. Tell people the best thing they can do to get ahold of you.

Yeah, I think the best thing— I'm a big guy when it comes to connecting. I love to meet people face to face. So I'm just gonna give you my personal email. I'll just make it really easy. Just email jordan@blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com. I made it long on purpose because I want people to type it and save it. So it's jordan@blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com. Just send me an email. Just say you heard me on Amberly's podcast. I set up a 30-minute call with anybody. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do. That 30 minutes is for you. So whether that's you need some advice, you need some feedback, or maybe you need a company to partner with that can help you achieve your goals, that 30 minutes is for you. So Amberly, I just want to say thank you. It's an honor to have the opportunity to speak to your audience. I know you've got such a great community of empowering people, inspiring people, you know, people from all walks of life. And then that's really me. I'm just a regular guy with irregular gifts in certain areas and someone that just likes to spread positivity, joy, and hope. Because without any of that stuff, life's a lot worse, right? If we can maintain a positive outlook and a mindset, then, you know, we're on the right track. And I'd love to leave your audience with a quote. And so just to give you context about the quote, I actually wrote it in 2019. I was in my bathroom, in my notes on my phone. Just my wife was cracking up as I was writing it because I showed it to her And she said, this is so you. And I was like, good, because I wrote it. So the quote is, the quote says, the struggle might be real, but the good news is that every struggle comes with a free gift called a lesson. And I hope that you— that resonates with you. I hope that inspires you just to know that no matter what life throws at you, there's always something to be gained that can help you shift your perspective. Yeah.

Mm. That's amazing. And that is something— you are such a gift in this world. You spread positivity everywhere you go, and I am just so grateful to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Jordan. And I'll probably talk to you later today, but thank you so much for being on the show and sharing so much wisdom.

And it was an honor to be on. Yeah.

And y'all, if you go ahead and take a screenshot, whether you're listening on your phone, if you're watching this on YouTube, And tag me @AmberlyLagoMotivation and Jordan Mendoza in your story. Every time I see that you are listening and this, you know, really touched you, I share that in my story too. So we wanna know that you heard, but mostly I want you to give a lot of love to Jordan and thank him for being on the show. So thank you, and I'll see y'all next week.