Borrowed Credibility

Business Brain, episode 578 for Casual Friday, August 30, National Toasted Marshmallow Day 2024. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a couple of ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to analyze so that we can tune our business brains and keep on living that charmed life by beating the system. Here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Northern California, I'm Shannon Jean. Hey, you made a comment, a term that I don't know what it means, but I want to learn. It's what is foot in mouth disease, Dave?

Right. Well, it might be my own term, but I don't think it is. I think I've heard it somewhere.

I'm definitely stealing it.

Foot and mouth disease is when you open your big mouth and say something that embarrasses you. Right, Got it. And I think it's good for all of us to embrace foot in mouth disease because when we're in a new situation, you know, I just came back from that trade show. I also was like, I was actually backstage at Gillette Stadium this weekend for Kenny Chesney and things like that. And yeah, it was awesome.

I bet.

Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. But you find yourself in new opportunities, new scenarios, foreign scenarios, perhaps all the time around people that you haven't met. And you have two choices, and really you think you have three, but what you have is two. You can either keep your mouth shut and be a wallflower that no one even remembers, or you can do the choice. That is a fallacy that doesn't exist. You can only say things that are gonna be super smart and impressive to all the people. You don't know what those things are going to be, so you don't get to do that. But if you can convince yourself of that, then that's great because then you don't have to worry about simply embracing foot in mouth disease. And that is saying things. And maybe you're going to embarrass yourself. Maybe people are going to look at you like, what's the matter with this person?

What's wrong with him?

What's wrong with him? He doesn't belong here. Right? To me, that's kind of the worst part of those sorts of things, is when someone there is like, I don't think this guy should be here. You know, that's bad. And it usually is from something I said, you know, but. But then you just keep going with it. Embrace foot and mouth disease. Keep engaging with the people listen more than you talk, but do talk, respond, Join the conversation. If you think you have something to add, add it and. But watch the reactions like it. You know, this isn't put on blinders and embrace foot and mouth disease.

Yeah, Read the room.

Right, Read the room. But don't just remain quiet.

Well, I think. And I think a way to kind of sneak into that conversation, maybe in between option two and three, is just ask questions. You know, it go like, wow, I didn't know that. Like, you know, you went backstage this weekend. Kenny Chestnut. I would have all kinds of questions like, hey, that's totally cool. How does that work? How do you get this stuff out? I mean, you don't want to be a pest about it.

That's a trick.

If you don't have anything else to say to add to the conversation. Asking that question can help you engage on another level where they were. That you get remembered or whatever you're trying to achieve.

Great idea. Yeah. People love to talk about themselves in general. Like you said, if you're. If you're too much of a pest while somebody's trying to do their job, well, that's different. But otherwise, you know.

But the questions is. Yeah, we always gauge, you know, you meet new people or you go out, you know, this kind of thing. And I often gauge whether we would see that person or hang out with that couple again with, like, how was the questions back and forth. Because it's often. I'm a question guy. I always. I'm. I am truly interested in your life. What do you do and how did you get here and what do you. That's just me. I like to have those conversations. But often you don't get those questions back. Right, right. So you don't get that two ways. So, yeah, I love that idea. I think the foot in mouth, the. I don't know that it's a disease. It's more like an opportunity.

I know, but there's like the. The hand, foot, mouth disease or whatever, so I figured I kind of embrace this.

Yeah, I see where you're playing on that. That's cool. No, I like it. I like it. Another topic I wanted to discuss was this. This concept of. But what I'm. What I call borrowed credibility. And I've recently had this because, you know, building a new business and I really don't. Didn't have any. I had no credibility trying to figure things out. And so one of the first things I wanted to do was make. Get some testimonials, right? Like, hey, this guy's valuable. He has valuable information. But I really didn't even know how to do. I didn't know how to do it. I wasn't doing what. Anything about it. So I just started in this part where I'm thinking of, okay, I'm going to become a business coach. Right. In the beginning, I need testimonials, but I have no experience. So I started booking just free calls. Like, hey, do you want to jump on a call and talk about your business or what you're going through? Let's. You know, even. It doesn't matter if it's 15 minutes or 30 minutes. And this was the very uncomfortable part was that if I felt the call went well, like there was some laughter, maybe some aha moments, somebody was taking notes. That's a big part. Writing things down. Yes, I would. As we. As we ended the call, I would say, hey, would you mind leaving me a testimonial if you felt I added value on this call? And of course, most of them said, absolutely, sure. So I use a service that collects testimonials, and I would just fire it off to them. And it was really uncomfortable because I'm like, you know, I don't know who this person is. I've only talked to them for a half hour. But I was able to start getting testimonials for a business that did not exist. Right. And all I wanted them to say is whether I had added value. And they went well beyond that in most cases. Some. Some times I did not ask them because I was like, oh, this one was not very good. Right. Or I didn't maybe have the skill set that they wanted or needed. So I was just like, okay, cool. Great to meet you. Anything I can help you with, let me know. That has helped me a lot. And I've got a ton of testimonials now that I can use that I am using to build out my coaching website and the service. And it's. And it's. It's. You also want to target people that have credibility.

Yes.

To leave you if. If you can.

If you can.

Sure. If you can't.

Yep.

Yeah. And so another example, like, I have a client that is just getting started, and he's like, man, I don't know anything about these businesses. And this business guy's very smart, but he's been in a corporate world, but he goes, I don't know about these people that are trying to acquire businesses. He wanted to learn about that stuff. And so I suggested. I said, yeah. I said, hey, why don't you start a podcast. 10 minutes, 10 questions, 10 minutes and in go. Target people that have acquired businesses. Have them on this show. Ask them, tell them. Look, I just. I'd love. I'd love to have 10 minutes of your time. And I have. Maybe it's five questions.

Whatever.

Yeah, yeah, whatever it is, keep it short. You could send them the questions beforehand if you want, get them on, you know, we're in Streamyard, Zoom, whatever you want, you could record.

Yeah. The point isn't publishing your podcast, although that would be a really interesting podcast.

Correct. The point is the exercise is not the podcast. The point is you're connecting with these people that probably wouldn't. Otherwise maybe they wouldn't talk to you. They won't have time or something. Hey, I'd love to have you on my podcast. I'm developing da da da da da. They come on, they answer your questions, they're educating you, and you're borrowing their credibility when you start publishing those podcast episodes.

Yes.

Oh, I talked with this guy that owns or that bought five businesses or started this. This. And knows all these things that you don't know. And especially if you're just starting out, I just would encourage you to come up with. You know, we talk about beating the system here. This is another hack to beat the system. You don't have to have all that experience to start, but you can borrow it from other people.

And I think if you are a podcaster or if your goal is to actually make that podcast part of your brand, perhaps part of your revenue stack, there's a lot of people out there that are under the false assumption of, if I have great guests on my show, all of their fans will then just become my fans. That's not the case. They might not even listen to one episode, but at best, they would listen to one with their. But. But even that doesn't often happen. What happens is you build up an audience of people that like what you do. Even if you have guests on it that are way more famous, you know, than you.

The way you interact, it's right.

You are the people. And you need to remember that because. And I've learned that this year with Gig Gab, because that show has become just me, and I bring in guests, and I've had some guests that are, you know, objectively much more famous than me. Like, way more. I mean, I just had Paul McCartney's guitar player on. Like, there's. There's zero question of which one of us has a bigger name. Right. But the. The people that, listen, certainly I have some people that are interested in him, that sort of drive by the people, but the people that stick around stick around not because he was on one time. They stick around because they like the interaction that I cause. So I'm always sure. I always make sure to stick with what interests me. And your idea of this show for this other person, even though it's not really an idea for a show, it actually is a decent idea for a show. Right, It's.

That's right.

It interests that person, which means they're going to attract other people who are interested in the same thing.

Topic.

Yeah, in the topic.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I'll give you two more quick examples because they both involve Dave. So when I wanted to, I needed to start a company to pay for my kids private school. And I knew about, I'm a deal guy. I knew all about deals and everything else, but I had no credibility starting a website. I had no understanding how it worked. So I had to borrow someone's credibility. And I reached out to, at first, didn't even reach out to Dave because I didn't know him. I reached out to Brian, I think.

He reached out to Greg Snyder.

Yeah, maybe it was Greg.

It was Greg.

And it was an ad rep that was selling ads for my company, Mac Rescue at the time.

Selling ads to you from my website?

Yes, yes, correct. And I said, hey, would you guys be interested in. And I had this idea. And Greg thankfully didn't just shut me down. He said, hey, let me pass this on to Dave and he's the guy would handle that. Dave and I started deals on the web that ran for about 10 years, made a ton of money, helped put my kids to school. Fast forward to 10 years after that when I thought about starting a podcast for a small business. I just wanted to talk to small business owners. I felt that they were not being addressed. I felt that everybody was super crazy. VC funding and you have to have a million dollars and all this kind of stuff. And I was like, no man, I built this great life just with these small companies. I've stacked up lifestyle businesses and you know, to build wealth. I want to talk about that. And who do I know to talk about that? Whose credibility can I borrow? Dave. Because Dave was in the podcast industry and Dave already had a podcast with 50, gazillion listeners for the Mac Geek app. I borrowed his credibility. He taught me how to be a podcaster. I'm just finally getting it after 578 episodes. But he taught me about consistency and about here's. You got to sound good. This is the equipment you've got to get. And I'm still recording this on a 50 microphone, I want you to know. But I take pride in that. So go.

There's nothing wrong with $50 microphones.

No.

As long as you're using the right one for you.

Yes, exactly.

And your room and your environment, like all those things. Yeah, Yep.

Yeah. All that stuff. So if you're on the fence, how do I start? I don't know what to do. I don't have this knowledge. I guarantee you there's somebody, someone's credibility that you can borrow to help escalate you to that next level. So look around and if you don't know, if you don't know who you can contact, reach out to us. Feedback BusinessBrain show share your network or, you know, come find us on, on X, at Dave Hamilton or at Shannon Jean. Send us a dm, tell us your situation. I'd be glad to give you some feedback on who you can go, you know, whose credibility that you can borrow to get yourself moving. Because action is the answer, man.

Action is always the answer. Yep. And that, that, you know, that's where the foot and mouth disease comes from. It's. Take action. Don't just sit there, do something. Bias towards action. It'll change your life. It will. Have a great weekend, folks. Feedbackusbrain show. We'll see you next week.