The Power of Conversation in Communities

I, Jeff Jefferson.

Hey.

Not be more excited right now. Like, this is, like, so fun. I'm, like, such a fan. I have so many questions. One of them is going to be about your new book, because that's super exciting. But what I thought would be fun to start with is you're. You're one of these, like, you know, we're. We're community here, but we're also, like, looking over at, like, social media success stories, and we're like, how'd you do that? How'd you do that? Because I have a feeling in your case, you're a little. You're like one of these, like, amazing success stories of, like. I just started posting videos one day, and so take us through if you, you know. Yeah, we got an hour together. Take us through where you were, what you were doing before you opened your phone and you started talking. And where did that idea come from?

Yeah, it's a weird story. The long and short of it. It's a very weird story. I'm honored to be here. Hi to everybody who's watching virtually. So it's great to be here. Great to meet you. If you haven't heard of any of my content, you can probably just find it on Instagram, Facebook, and it's. You can I. I give communication advice. And you've probably seen my videos of me in my car, because that's where I give it. I. Gina. I started a little over two years ago, I started my own law firm. So I was at a defense firm for a long time. I was a partner there. And I decided to go off on my own. And when I did, I thought, well, I need to be in the social media stuff. Like, I'm still young. Ish. I need to do social media. And so I started Googling. How do you. How do you do it? And at the time, the Instagram we were raised on was you just take a picture of your coffee, of your latte and put a filter on it, you know, and that's your. That's your Instagram picture. Yeah. And so they were slowly getting into video, and I was trying to find out how to do it, and I made a video about how to do, like, law stuff. So what to do after a car accident? What do you do when you don't know how to pick the right attorney? And I thought, man, this just feels like I'm selling to people. And I don't like this feeling because really, what's giving them the reason to watch? And you don't watch and follow somebody on social Media because they're selling something to you. You watch because it's entertainment, it's value, it's something that you're. You're gaining from it. And I thought, well, what's something that I like to talk about? What I believe that I know more than anybody in my world, and that's communication. And because of my own life experiences and the way I was raised and being a trial attorney. And so I made my first how to argue like a lawyer video in my car because at the time, I didn't have an office. I was in between. And now we have two locations. But before, wow. I was just borrowing friends back offices and at coffee shops. And I was always worried about having the right lighting, the right mic. I didn't have any of this right here I'm in is like a month and a half old at the back of my house.

By the way, it looks good. And I think most people are just confirming that that is Abraham Lincoln, also a lawyer. Also started as a lawyer in the background.

Yes, correct. That's exactly right. And it was. It was just kind of this shift for me of, wait, they don't. They don't. I don't have to look like a lawyer. In fact, they don't want me to. The having a suit tie, law books behind me. I was just in my car, I just dropped off my kids or I was in between hearings or something, and that's where it was real. And the thing was, I wasn't trying to pretend to be anybody that I wasn't, and I wasn't selling. So all I had to do was I thought, well, let me give them three points, three takeaways that they can use to help their next conversation. And away it went. And it just. It just took off. What I. What I tell my closest friends is I think somebody in the social media world messed up. You know those. You know that scene in a movie where somebody's trying to break into, like, a compound and there's a. Like a security guard with, like, 50 screens and they fell asleep. Like, that's. That's why I imagine something happened. Somebody at Instagram fell asleep, spilled their coffee, and my account started just to grow. I was gaining close to 150,000 followers a day.

What year was this? This was two years ago.

That was two years ago. That was. What year is it now? It's 2025. Yeah, this started. It was the beginning of 23 is when my account started going absolutely haywire.

It's. What's so fun about your story is you know, it, it's a great example of doing something and then evolving it. So I have to ask the question, what were the first three points in how to. Like, I want to know what these are. I know, I know you've made a lot of videos since then, but I'm like, I'm always curious about like some somebody's first content.

It was. Well, I remember it was how to Argue Like a Lawyer, part one.

Oh.

Because I didn't really know what to do and I just did part one hoping that there'd be a part two. And I remember because on TikTok side everything's like very quick and fast and right. And so I remember making the points of. One you don't get defensive to as soon as somebody's giving personal attacks. If you give personal attacks on someone, it's telling the other person that you've lost because you can't think of any other solid points. You've resorted to low hanging fruit, like you know, commenting on their, their looks or their intelligence or something. It just means you don't have a good point. And then I think the third point was how don't cuss too much because it's like over seasoning your food. Like it's, it just, it's shows people you're more emotional than you are logical and it takes away from your credibility more than it adds onto it if you're not careful. I think, I think that's what it was.

I love that. And so that was the first video and then you saw it worked, like really worked. Like 150,000 followers a day worked.

But it didn't start out that way. It didn't start out that way.

I was gonna say. So, so how did you like, how'd you go from that first video to like.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Something here.

So I first, I mean I listen, I googled when I was doing the first videos, I was like selling what I did. I was googling why do my videos have zero views? I googled that on more than one occasion to find out why my stuff was not popping up. And then when I did my first value post, I got like a thousand views and I thought that was huge. And then other random people I didn't know started following me. That never happened before. Everybody else, I had 800 followers and they were all friends from like law school and college. Right. And so as I began to grow, I started to get more and more followers and then just more and more I got, I'd get fifty thousand and then a hundred thousand views. And then my fourth video that I did, it got four million views.

And it went from four thousand to four million.

Yes. On my own views. Yeah. And so it was just like refining the. What's the, what's the takeaway? What, what kind of value are you really giving to people? And then I realized, okay, what they're really wanting to know is instead of me saying be more empathetic or be more mindful, which are these vague terms that people use, it was me saying, no, no, no, no. When they say this, you say that. So instead of saying like, I'm just, I can't understand you. Instead say, I'm trying to learn here. Things like that. Flip the dynamic. And so a lot of these things that, that I know and I use, I know how to. Instead of saying, hey, stop, stop yelling at me. You can't talk to me like that. Flip it to. I don't respond to that. So there's lots of different ways that I could twist and flip the word to help them. And that's, that's how I started once I kind of caught the groove of my three tips, keeping it short and simple. And I was probably one of the first to start making like advice out of my car is my guess.

And yeah, yeah, yeah.

How it went.

Do you still focus on three things and advice from your car?

I do, yeah. Because it's, it is very short, practical, less than a minute. Like the thing is, if you. They know it's going to be three. They know what's expecting in the video. They know of. Okay, he went to one. Okay, he's. Now he's two. What's next? There's three. And so it's predictable, it's consistency. They know what to expect when they watch your content. And it's the same thing I do at trial.

Right.

Is where I got it. It's the same thing. If I'm going to say, ladies and gentlemen, this is a case about common sense. There's three things I want to talk to you about today. One, and then I'm going to tell them what the three things are. And then when I go in closing argument, I'm going to tell them the three things that they heard that matches the opening and it's just a short concise, allows them to remember it. And yeah, so that's, that's. I've always stuck with.

Now actually, before I get to this question, one of the theories I have and I'm, I'm curious if you agree or disagree with this Are you familiar with the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo? Like, it's like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. You don't have to have ever seen it. You just.

I've never seen it. I have heard of it.

Yeah. So the entire show is about miscommunication. It literally is like, there would be no show if people used your techniques. Exactly. Said, sorry, like, oh, shoot, I hurt your feelings. I'm really sorry about that. And so, you know, where did, where, where did this all come from? Like, do you, were you always somebody who was confident in your ability to speak in front of people? Was it something, you know, what drew you to law in the first place? And especially being a trial attorney, There are a lot of other, other paths in law that you can go. And so how did you, you know, was it always something or was this something that you were like, okay, I had to learn this?

Well, I, I'm a fifth generation trial attorney, so.

Oh, okay.

There's a lot of us. There's a whole lot of us. And you know, my dad's an attorney. His dad was a da. His, his dad was a federal judge. There's. There's a whole lot of lawyers. And what that means is there's a lot of storytellers, right? And I grew up just listening to courtroom stories most of my life. And when I would go watch my dad's trial or my grandfather's, it was, you're not just watching them, you're watching the jury. And so you get to see these little aspects of their mannerisms. And I got really good at reading rooms and reading people and realizing that if I just changed a little bit of my tone or how I accented, you know, certain word in the sentence and which one it was changed the dynamic of how it was delivered and how it was received, and that really hone a lot of my skills early on. I'm the oldest of four, and as any oldest knows, you get really good at having to just mediate between everyone, have coming up with compromises and, and doing that. And so I, I love being the big brother. I always have my, my whole life. And so that was kind of my old soul mentality of how I fell into that. And there's just a lot of different life experiences I've had that just honed the communication skills for knowing, you know, where you want to, where you want to go. And so it's something that I feel it's. When people don't invest in their communication, it's just not investing in your own self Your own life. It's not like picking up a habit of you wanting to do woodworking or knitting or something. It's you. There's no way to not communicate if you're alive. I mean, not. Not saying anything is still communicating. Yeah. So it's almost impossible not to do it. And when you can take advantage of your communication, when you can learn and you can hone. I mean, people invest all kinds of money in all kinds of crazy things, but they don't really think about their communication until they're probably maybe in their early 30s. They now find themselves in a serious job, or maybe now they're for the first time responsible for other people and they're having to manage other people. And, and they're thinking, oh, man, how. How do I. This has got to change. How am I going to do that? And the answer's in the communication. Right?

Have. Have you found as you have focused in on building a following around communication. By the way, I'm like dying from sunlight here. Excuse me one second.

Hi, everybody. Hope you're doing well. Say hi in the chat. Thanks for being here. I'm now going to be the host. Welcome.

I'm back. You know, and by the way, if there is anybody that I would hand that hosting microphone to, Jefferson, it's you. It's you. So thank you. But also, I really appreciate the fact that, again, this is a great example of where community is. Is forgiving because I was getting pelted by sun. So back to, you know, as you have focused in on, you know, sharing communication stories and those three tips in your videos, what have you learned about communication? How. How has your kind of understanding of it changed from that first video when you're like, oh, my gosh, like. Or the fourth video where you're like, okay, to doing this regular for two years. Like, what.

What's your.

What's your evolution? And how do you think about communication today versus where you started two years ago?

I realized that people struggle with it way more than I thought. And it's something that is universal really, with. Yeah. Anybody. It's. It's not some particular group that needs help. It's. It's not people who speak in front of crowds. It's not people that have all this, you know, the, all the masses and the public facing. No, it's. It's really in the very, very small things. They struggle in the small little conversation with the grandson you haven't seen in a long time or the daughter you're trying to. To talk to and reach or that difficult person at the family reunion, it's those little bitty moments where people have that angst and that friction, and it just became such a passion of mine to go, how can I help these people? Yeah, I have a job. Yeah. I have a law firm. I have a family. It's great. How can I. How can I pour into these people, into something that really makes me happy to share this stuff with them? And I learned that the. You use a great word, and that's forgiving so much of the community that I've. I've built. And when I say that, I mean the people that I've. That have followed me over time and know my content and I've got to interact with them and share my life. They really do just forgive so many things. They forgive the, the blemishes, the. The mistakes. They. They want to be with you and want to share the journey with you, and it's a wonderful thing. It's a huge blessing and it's a. It's a responsibility that I've now fully walked into and to know that this is something that I like to do. And there just became such a. A marketplace of. Of peace that, That I, I love.

Yeah, it's. It's interesting on some level, you know, what you have done and where you are sitting. There's also, I think, for a lot of people, a lot of fear around that the only way to get there is perfection. And then are you held to some higher standard, either as somebody who has a following or, you know, in our case, and we're going to get to community, trust me, you know, being a community host, being somebody who is, you know, on the stage and who is saying, wait a second, like, am I actually a expert here? I. But could I possibly charge somebody for being an expert in this thing that I, I don't know about yet? And so I'm curious, do you feel like as you have grown your following that your. Your followers or. Or just sort of the, The. The relationship you have is more forgiving or less forgiving?

It's way more forgiving. And it's a. A level of. Of trust of people that have watched my stuff consistently say, okay, he. He's leading me in the right direction. Most importantly, his heart's in the right place. People, same thing with juries. They're super perceptive. They almost have a sixth sense. You can watch a video online and go, I don't think this person's genuine. Right. They're not doing anything different. On paper, they look exactly the same. As everybody else. But there's a sense about it. I don't know. This person just doesn't feel. You don't feel that. And so when you can build a community that really has that connection with you, it's. The sky's the limit. I mean, it's, it's. I find so much joy in this concept of just, what's the point of it all if you can't help just one person? What's the point of it all if you can't just make one little change to somebody's life for the better? If, if it has to be all about the masses, all about the numbers, it's, it's. You're gonna find it's not that fulfilling. Right. But when you can focus on the little things, a lot of big things go right.

I love that, especially for this group, which is a set of people that are like, can I do this? Like, is this something that's possible? Do I have to be somebody else in order to, you know, launch a community, host a community? And what I hear you saying is this is about showing up, having a purpose, wanting to have impact and help just even one person. Yeah, it's, it's refreshing to hear it. And I think it's one of the reasons why you have built such a significant following because you are authentic. And also, like, having met you a little bit through, through various things recently, you're, you're real. Like the person you are in your videos is the person that you show up with. And, and I think, you know, there's so many people on the, on the Internet. I like to just say on the Internet, but it's really in social media where it's, you know, I've got, I've got all the answers. I've got the. I've, I've got all the answers. I'm the guru, you know, listen to me. This is tough love. And I, I think you're, you're. And this is what I'm seeing in the chat. The authenticity really does make a difference. And I think it's a, it's a fantastic lesson and a fantastic insight for all of us as we show up for people in our real life and people on the interwebs. Quick question. Okay, so one of the folks in the chat loves your, loves your communication insights for small business owners. And when you think about how business owners communicate with their customers or their employees, what have you found to be some of the, the, the key points, the things that really resonate?

Number one would be what I, we Talked about selling aspect. Yeah, it's. People will, especially small business owners, will get on Facebook, get on Instagram, TikTok, and start making videos about their product. You want to come up with reasons why people are following you, regardless of your product. It's. You're selling the idea of. Of who you are. Why do you follow who you follow? A good question to ask is yourself, is, if you didn't work where you worked, would you follow them? If you didn't work for that business you're at, would you follow them?

Wow.

On social media, most likely not if you're not doing it right. And so you have to find these, this ability to go, okay, what do I want to share with the world? What's our value here? And what. What can we give? And people will buy your product if they buy into your idea, into your values, into who you are. And for anybody listening, you don't have to have a bajillion followers. You don't have to have a hundred thousand followers. It's. It's just having the. Being brave enough to be okay with starting out very small. Like, I get frustrated with other. I say frustrated. I tried to encourage other creators who go, oh, you know, my, my views only got 25,000 views or something. And I'm like, you just shared this with 25,000 people that you don't know, you know, what a stadium looks like. So this sense of gratitude that you have to have of. I don't own any of these platforms. It's a gift for me to be able to share any of this and just help one little person. If you go, oh, I only have 10 people in my membership. That's amazing. You got 10 people who are willing to. To be on this journey with you. I mean, we, we will watch a video, Gina. Of other people watching a video. Like, you know, we'll watch videos of people reacting to other videos. Yeah, they're not even doing anything. They're just reacting to a video that you could be watching. And so it's not. It's not nearly as complex as people think. I mean, there's plenty of people are familiar with. Like, I think it's Twitch. Like, you can watch people learning things. I mean, there's no limit. There really isn't. So it's having to find that thread of gratitude of the world we live in, and just affecting one person really can. Can make a difference. And. And the more you take that in, the more it's going to grow because people feel that.

So. Well said. So, so switching gears so you have this amazing social media success and you decide to write a book to launch a community. Tell us about how you thought about this evolution. Especially, you know, again, not to be self interested, but this, this whole community thing.

Yeah.

And how you have, how did you, how did you sort of think about it? And, and I want both the book and the community because I think that they are both really important evolutions and I'd love to learn more.

It is, I continually try to keep this sense of wonderful. If you, if you like with anything.

Yeah.

If you get used to it, it just becomes a job and you kind of get bored and you learn to. At least for my personal personality, you try to find something else.

Yeah. You're like.

And here in this space in writing a book, being asked to write a book, publishing a book and then going, wait, I could build a, an actual outside community and continue to build that and I can nurture people in their communication. It is continually a sense of just wonder. Well, you kind of have to be like a, like that kid. Sense of wonder of just. This is just so cool. This is so cool. Like it could all go away and man was at a great game. Like it just this, this positivity that you have to reach into and find and it's just, it's a continual well that you have to draw from every day. I never thought I'd ever write a book. It was never a dream of mine. I never saw any of this coming. It wasn't until my social media that people began asking for a book. Hey, you should write a book. You should write a book. And I thought, well, I guess I'll write a book. And so I thought I was going to self publish one. And then I had some literary agents who came in and were like, no, I think you could do this. And before you know it, I have a, a wonderful book deal. And here we are about to launch in a little over a month, which is a while to have a whole book tour going to be going. They're sending me to the uk. Gina.

No.

Yeah. And so I'm, there's this whole aspect of just, I'm just excited to be here on the community part of it. It is so much fun to be able to tinker and wonder and finagle and fiddle with it, to figure out what's going to be the best way to, to nurture and teach people because it's a totally different dynamic. I went to law school, I went to college, I went to law school. I didn't go to community. School, Like, I've like, how to build your own.

You have not had to, you know.

Yeah, but you know what I mean? Like a membership school. That's what I mean. I didn't go to a school on how to build a membership. I didn't go school on this. So it's all new. And there's so many times when I'm, I hear a new term and I feel like my dad, I'm like, no, what, what is. What, what, what's his term? Yeah. And I use a horrible word for the technology. I'm like, isn't that the thing where I'm going, God, oh my gosh. And I'm talking to somebody who's like 21, and I'm like, it sounds like my dad asking me how to work the vcr. So it's just all a learning opportunity, what have you.

One of the things we hear is that that sort of aha moment related to how do you help people through a transition has been, you know, one light bulb that, that we, we hear often what for you has been either the biggest surprise or the thing that you were like, oh, well, if I would have gone to community school, that would be something I would have learned.

Yeah. And when we say community, just like membership, like if I had learned about memberships.

A membership.

Yeah.

The way I think about it is like there's community and then you monetize community through a membership, through courses, through challenges, through events. And that's almost like a. You, you. Yeah, it's different ways of getting to the community. But you're right, a lot of times there's this expectation that community is either a social media following or free.

Right. One of the biggest lessons I learned that people are watching you even when you don't think they are. Just because they don't like the post. Just because they don't leave a comment doesn't mean they're not following your stuff. And, and it is a lesson for me in making sure that what you put out there in your community is exactly who you are. Because like we said, mentioned, mentioned a second ago, people will know the difference. And if they don't feel like you're being authentic, they really won't follow it. The membership aspect of like, how, how would you put this together? It's the offering like that that is, that to me is still, I mean, it's still something we work on because it feels like a puzzle. And you know, what, what are the, the, the points, the pressure points? How do you, how do you share the value how, how do you give them what they want? And some of it's kind of guesswork. Some of it's gut work where you just got to go with your gut on it. And it's, I feel like it, it's never going to stop. Just kind of trying to tweak and do all the things.

Yeah, we, this is one of the reasons why, yes, we talk about it as an offer, but it's really a value journey. It's like, how do you bring people in? How do you offer them that first level of value and value from you, but also a value that has them working with and able to build value for each other, then leveling up and leveling up and leveling up. And I think that's a really great way of saying a community. It's a living, breathing thing. It never is final. It's a process and a journey in ways that are, I think, really invigorating. But that might be because of me. Just be me.

Well, it also encompasses a broad range. Range. I mean, you have people who are super fans and they're going to support you no matter what. And then you have these people who are very suspicious, but they want to try it out. So it's trying to make sure that everybody feels.

Yeah.

Welcome in it. And I mean, we're very, I mean, as you know, we're right at the beginning stages of it, so we're still trying to find, you know, where's, where's going to be the, the feel good spot. Yeah.

Shifting gears, how are you doing your trial work and two offices, your social, your book. A book tour, like, for a lot of people who, you know, are, are in the chat. And by the way, there's a, there's a lot of very, very specific social media questions that we have time. We have time. I'm going to, I'm going to bring those back. So folks who are asking them, remember, or hold, hold tight. I'm coming back for you. But a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I have a job, I've got a family. I'm trying to do all of these things. This would just be so overwhelming to take on another thing. How have you approached that?

With a lot of grace, thankfully. I have people in my, my life that can see where I'm going and see what I want to do in my mission and they want to be part of it. And that also adds to the forgiveness and the flexibility that you need. You know, I'm having to begin to kind of draw away from the law firm, the law firm's still running, it's operating, it's great. It just, it doesn't need me, Jefferson, physically to be there to run efficiently anymore. And that's because of the people and scale I've been able to create. And so that allows me to start leaning in more into the membership and the community and the social media and the book and the speaking. And so that's not the most difficult part. The most difficult part is being the husband and dad. Being. That's the hard part is because you can get a lot of fulfillment of people liking your stuff and following you or paying for your membership or you can, you can chase a lot of that. But then you realize what you're leaving behind is really the little things. And that's, you know, making sure you're home to kiss your kids good night every night. And the being home for dinner, that's, that's, that's the gold. And so it's a constant reminder of where your priorities are. That's the hard part is when I go to speak somewhere, that means I'm not home.

Right.

And if I could bring the kids, I would, but they got school, so it's, it's hard to, hard to balance that. But we're, we're slowly, we're slowly getting there. Thankfully, I'm going to bring, get to bring them on a lot of my, my book.

Okay, good.

Because I'm not gonna bring them to the signings because that was my people.

That was my thought. Like, that was my question. As you were saying that I'm like, what are we doing about the uk? Like, how's this gonna work? Is this spring break, right?

It, it is actually. It's, it's there. I'm not going to the UK until June, till after school's out.

This is gonna be amazing.

And so we're very, very pumped. I've never been overseas, so it's gonna be awesome. But then we have. They have me going to like, I think over 10 cities right now. So a lot of this stuff, I'll be able to bring the kids. Very, very excited.

Well, we will also make sure that, that everybody who's a part of this will have your date. So if you happen to be in the city that our folks are in, we'll, we'll, we'll let them know because that would be fantastic. And we have been sharing the link to the book and sharing. Thank you very much to the membership as well. So let's do a couple of social media specific questions. Any other questions? Folks have for Jefferson. Let's go ahead and take those now. And then I've got. I've got two questions to. To end our time.

Today I saw one that asked my monetizing reels.

Yes.

You know, how do you monetize your content? Let me tell you the truth of it. I don't monetize any of my stuff. I don't. You can't monetize reels on Instagram. They don't pay anything. They do have bonuses, but when you get too big, they don't. They don't do it for you. And then for TikTok, I don't monetize TikTok because I don't know what that app is going to do and I'm not worried about it. So that's why I tried to diversify away to make sure I have everything. LinkedIn, don't sleep on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, you can grow a whole lot without having to do video. It just need to be super consistent. I don't make any money there. The only one where you can make a little bit of something is on Facebook reels. And that's if you have like ads like on YouTube where you can play. They play an ad before or after your video somewhere. That's the only ones. And I didn't do. I didn't happen. Yes, on YouTube I do, but because a lot of mine are shorts. Oh, my goodness, my nose is burning. I need to sneeze, but it's not coming.

We're all here whenever, whenever it.

Is. Because my videos are shorts. And so they don't make very. I don't do long. A lot of long form.

Right, right, right, right, right.

I had like a long form content. That's where you can make, you know, more stuff. And I started doing my podcast, which I did in my car for like 15 minutes, by the way. If you have. If you want to start a podcast, just get your phone. All right, that's it. And then get a little lav mic, the ones that clip onto you, but they make it to where they can click into your phone. You just talk to yourself. I spoke to myself for 15 minutes alone in my car and I'll post those on YouTube or Spotify or something. And that's done crazy well. So you can. Everything you can do super, super low key. You don't also.

Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead.

There's one point I want to make to anybody who's like, I need to look at my social media. I'm kind of, yeah, I need to work on it, you know, I'm gonna get to it. Listen to me. Your stuff is going to be bad for, like the first 5, 10, 15 videos. My stuff was bad in the very beginning. It. It is expected. It is going to happen. You need to get over it because it's. It's like, oh, I don't want my stuff to be bad. It's guaranteed to be bad. But that's the point that it's. You're going to learn from that. That's how you learn, is you make mistakes by putting yourself out there. So just get over that hump. There's going to be less people who look at it than you think, and you learn that way. So just. It's part of it. I went through it. I still go through it.

Yeah, yeah. The same is true for Community. Like, you're not going to. There's no perfect time to launch. There's no perfect way to launch. You just. You do it and you, as you're doing right now, Jefferson, you evolve and you. You learn and you evolve. All right, couple more questions. Very. This has been asked twice by Henri. Like, follow me. You say follow me. Did. Did you see. Did you see a huge difference when you said follow me versus before?

I did that in my first how to Are you like a lawyer video. The reason why is because I googled. I. I said, you know, what do you need in a social media video? And one of it said that you need a call to action, right? You need to get them to do what you're asking them to do. And so I thought, well, I want them to follow me, I guess. And I don't know why I did the mouth, hand. Mouth thing. I think it was like more of a. I kind of felt shy. And so I felt like I needed to make it more like a secret of like, hey, you follow me if you want. And that's how it. That's how it started. Because I felt like I was probably. I. I didn't want to be like super in their face, so I felt like I need to say quietly follow me. And. Yeah, and then I got used to it. Like, you can see some of my earlier videos did not that get. Get that many views, especially compared to now. But I experimented. I mean, I did. I did ex. I honestly experimented where my first point would be very short, my second one a little bit longer, my third the most long, and I'd reverse it, have my first point the longest and then get shorter. And so I'd experiment with what would, you know, what would work how many seconds did it really make a difference?

Mm. I am actually getting inspired here because I got. I have one of those little mics, and I, like, I really want to try, like, walking around with my phone and, like, talking. I haven't done it yet. I keep putting it. It's the thing that I'm putting off. So I'm going to. I'm going to hold myself accountable to this whole group. If you don't see me doing, like, call me out. All right, Any final questions for Jefferson as Allah? I've been scared to rip the band aid off for a while. I know it's holding me back to spread my value. I overthink it and then overjudge myself. Thank you for sharing that. It's so true.

We.

We all do it.

Let me tell you, this is what you should do. All right? Post today, hopefully preferably within the hour. Like, it is as simple as going to Instagram, pulling up. This is what I do. I pull up the Instagram. I make my videos in Instagram. I don't worry about transitions and cap cut and all these other fancy apps. You don't need any of that. All you need to do is just get it out of your system. It's as simple as that. You just have to do it once. You're going to get real nervous. You're going to post. You go, oh, and you're going to watch the. Keep looking at your post, see how many people liked it. Forget all that. You just need to put it down and walk away and go live your life and realize your life is still really great. And so once you post one little video, it doesn't matter. It's. It's. That's why I'd say if people are like, I'm afraid it's going to be bad, lady, sir. It's going to be bad. That's. That's the whole. That's the whole point. You just. You need to accept that and be cool with that, because it's only going to get better because people will give you the feedback and you're going to learn to go into it. But it's as simple as just grabbing your phone and talking about it. And one of the best people I know, he's kind of a polarizing guy, but one of the best people to help give you a lot of the encouragement to do that is Gary V. He's got this. I listened to a few of his podcasts before in the past, and it's just that idea of just do it. You're every Time. You're waiting. You're. You're making it worse. Just do it. Not now. Not like, oh, I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I'll get there. No, no, no, do it now. Like, it doesn't matter what you say. It's just putting it out there.

Oh, my gosh.

In my first video.

And you are inspiring people in the chat.

Yes. Well, in my. Listen. Listen to me. In my very first video and one of my very first, All I did was I got my phone in my car, of course, because I have anywhere else. And I said, hey, look, I just left my law firm. I'm going to start trying to make some videos online. May be cool, may not be cool, but I'm going to try it. I hope you'd encourage me. And that was it. I posted that. And you know what? I got more likes and friends that were like, hey, good job, let's go. Awesome, let's do this. Then you're like, okay, all right, I can do that. But it's that hump. It's that little bitty hump. But you realize that once you get to it, like, even now, listen to me, I have way too many followers, way more than I should. I still will get that little bump of, oh, this is gonna be terrible. And I post and it's not. It's not ever as bad as you think it is. So just. It's. It's. We are a terrible judge of what is subjectively good and bad. It's. We're way too. The posts that I thought were going to do terrible, a lot of time do awesome. Posts that I really loved fell flat.

I've had that same experience.

You gotta. You gotta let that go. You gotta let it go. Get your phone out, make a video. It could be 10 seconds. You just need to get used to, oh, this is what it's like to post a video. Oh, this is what it's like. You have to finagle, you have to work, and you have to post to see how it works.

One of the things that I'm taking away from this and your not only incredible insight, but also success is the power of constraints. So you found after some trial and error, it's three things so you know that you can sit down. You're authentically in the world, just like any of us who's sitting in our car probably watching your videos and having those three things. And so one of the things I'm going to take away from this conversation is what could I do? That is the equivalent of your three Things like, how do I think about what my constraint. And I offer that to. I offer that to the. To the chat as well. Is. Is because one of the questions is, how do you sort of balance getting started and learning with communicating the purpose or communicating, you know, the insights or expertise you might have? And how do you know? Because that's. That's the hard part where you're like, well, but I'm. I'm an expert in this. Or I'm really good at this. But if I'm experimenting and I'm not making videos that are great, am I really communicating that?

Yeah. Here's where I would hope they would. This group. You would really listen, and that is you need to lean in to what you love to talk about.

Yeah.

Even if that's different from your business. Here's what I mean. I am an attorney. I like talking about communication. My gift is communication. That's what I lean into. Your gift is something else, and it can be completely unrelated to your job. People aren't following you for your job and for your business. They're following you for you because they like you regardless of what you do. I get calls all the time to my law firm. I don't talk about social media. I don't talk about my law firm on social media. They know it because they follow me, period. So you take what you like to do. For example. I could. I could say I don't really like. Maybe it wasn't communication. Maybe I just really like sweet tea. And that's true. I do love sweet tea. And let's say I went to, I don't know, Cane's, chick fil a McDonald's. And I. What I did was I sit in the booth and I'd say, hey, everybody, sweet tea with Jefferson. I'm going to try this sweet tea out. And I try the sweet tea. I rank it out of 1 to 10, and I say, meh, it's okay. And I just give a little bitty short something, and I post it. That's your content. That's what people like. And people will watch that and follow that because there's other people in the world who like sweet tea. And then they're gonna comment, oh, no, McDonald's on Fifth Street's the best. And oh my gosh, you got to go to.

And you've got your next post.

And there you got your next post.

Got your.

And it's. And then it draws and it continues to. Do you look at somebody like Keith Lee who does food stuff. He. He. Food reviewers. They Review one place. And then somebody goes, oh, no, you need to try somewhere else. And then you go. And it couldn't. And it doesn't have to be food or sweet tea. It could. Maybe it's Lord of the Rings, maybe it's basket weaving. There will be other people. That's the, that's the power of the algorithm. That's why it's there. It takes people who like what you're doing and pulls them in to watch. And so it's the algorithm. It's not you fighting the algorithm, it's. The algorithm is pulling people to watch what you like to do. Yeah. So it does. It doesn't have to do anything to do with your job. It's them wanting to see that that's just what you like. It's your passion. So lean more into that.

The same is true for community. I mean, the whole idea is once you get those founding members, they're pulling more people into the results and transformation that you're offering. The interest, the passion, the goals that you have. And so it's, it's such great perspective and such great insight into how to be a modern professional and also just how to start something. So I love it. All right, well, we're coming to the end of time. Here are. Here's my question for you. I think about this a lot for myself. What is the best class or workshop you've ever taken or been a part of?

Oh, my best class or workshop I've ever taken. That's hard. Best class. When I was in college, I took a class called Life and Death Decisions. And I come from a very small town in Texas and I live nearby it. And you just think small town things. Nothing wrong with that. You just don't know any different. And this class was about big life decisions that I had never considered before. And he would propose these big questions, political questions, big crystallizing hard decisions on religious topics, on life, cultural topics, these hot button issues. And you'd all have a little clicker. And so nobody knew what people were voting. And everybody have their hands crossed so you can't tell who's doing what. It was all anonymous and getting to learn everybody's opinion was just vastly different from everybody. And it, you know, you would do this kind of thing of like, if you had that idea, if you had a railroad and you had. And it split and you have 20 people on one side, total strangers, but let's say you have like your mom on the other side, which one would you flip it to? And so, like these big Ideas are going. Yeah. How do you, how do you put into words and the feeling that you have, even though it may not make a logical sense, how would you do it in your own life? And for me, that was just a huge moment of realizing that my world was very big. And that in many ways it's, it just encouraged me to open my mind a lot, in a good way, in a very positive way, to realize that everybody's different and everybody wants to be heard and seen. And that really left a big impression on me. It was a wonderful class.

Wow. That also, I wrote, I wrote it down because I'm like, that is an amazing membership.

Yeah, it really is.

That is an amazing membership. I'm like, this is incredible. All right. By the way, I think we've got some people that are very excited to join your community. So join your membership. So we've, we've been sharing that in the chat. Final question, similar vein. What's the best party you've ever been to?

Best party. When I was in college, we had a black light party. And my, and, and our, we had like, I lived in a house of 11 guys. Okay. Anyway, aside from that.

No, it's a great example. Great example. Answering the question right away. And yeah, absolutely. What comes out is true. It's awesome.

Yeah. Yeah.

The best party I've ever been to was a, was a Kentucky derby party in New York City, in downtown New York City when it was still kind of grungy. And it was the most fun party I have ever been to.

That's cool. I'm a big, big music festival guy. I love music festival and so I love all things music, live music. My biggest hobby is trying to find new artists, like new music before they get big.

What's the latest? What should we be listening to?

Oh, there's a lot of good ones. There's a whole lot of good ones. I'll have to put. If you're in my membership, I'll post like.

Okay. Another great reason to join Jefferson's membership is up and coming artists.

Yeah. And one of the artists that were there, it was just a really cool experience I had. Like, all my friends from college were there and it was just a really cool moment. And so, yeah, it's just that little bit of people. Biggest takeaway for me, for anyone there is that when you do your videos or when you're in your membership, don't, don't act glossy. And I mean, what I mean is don't try to be perfect. The moments that you draw people in are the ones that are just real. So if you're trying to be extra done up, if you're trying to have every word right, it's not going to feel real because you. People watch social media, you know, when they're using the bathroom. People watch social media when you're looking like a slob on the couch. And so people really like real. So just understand that the people who are following you are going to forgive it because it's. That's. That's the very thing that's going to relate them to you.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being a part of this. I am so grateful. I am so grateful that you've taken all of the amazing things you're doing in social media and you're evolving them and evolving them into a membership that is an evolving journey into a book, which sounds like it's going to be amazing. And joining us here today, I just. I cannot express my gratitude more because you're incredible. And every time I interact with you, I'm like, oh, my God.

Everybody's been wonderful. I love Mighty. Everything's been great. Highly, highly, highly recommend. And stay tuned for sweet tea with Jefferson coming to you.

I know. Or new. New artists with Jefferson.

Yeah. Oh, goodness. I'm gonna start all these new.

It's gonna be fantastic.

I love it.

All right, take care. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.