Hi everyone and welcome back to For the Curious
and Confused, a podcast for people who want to
understand different perspectives of the world
to the people who inhabit it. I'm your host,
Don McTaggart, and today I'm joined by Glenn
Rudin, a business coach who specializes in messaging
and branding. So far in his career, Glenn has
worked with many large companies including Disney,
Walmart, the NBA, and others to develop effective
messaging protocols. His expertise focuses on
helping businesses clarify and communicate their
value to potential customers. While this is important
in the corporate world, the idea of tailoring
a message to be most effectively received by
another party is a skill that extends well beyond
the business ecosystem. Glenn is interested in
empowering individuals to identify their personal
strengths and abilities and present them in a
way that most effectively communicates what they
have to offer. Whether through elevator pitches,
promotional materials, or business cards, Glenn
believes that carefully crafted messaging is
a key to personal and professional success. So,
Glenn, thank you for sharing your time with us
today, and I'm excited to hear some of your insights
on messaging and personal branding. Hey, Don,
it is great to be here. I'm excited to get the
chance to speak to you and potentially talk to
a different kind of audience that I normally
wouldn't get the opportunity to speak to because
I think a lot of What I speak about in the branding
and messaging business strategy world does apply
to the other world, the world that we live in
when we're not doing business. And so it'll be
really interesting to see how well this resonates
with your audience. I appreciate the opportunity.
Great. Thank you. I'm very excited. So to start
us off, could you give us a bit of a two -minute
introduction into who Glenn Rudin is and what
motivates him from your perspective? Sure. It's
a great question. grown up with a tremendous
curiosity about product development. And that's
where I spent the bulk of my career. As a young
kid, I was always really interested in how labels
got on packages, on how products, got into stores,
this whole process of consumer packaged goods.
And so I followed a career into doing that and
worked for a lot of big companies where that
was really, really important. Revlon Cosmetics
is a great example where I really got to work
on all the different facets of what it takes
to get a cosmetic item from a laboratory someplace.
to Bloomingdale's counter in New York City. And
it was always really fascinating to me. And what
I found about 10 years ago as I was still doing
my product development work and started getting
out and doing more networking in the local communities
here in New York and in Long Island was I started
putting this together that people are really
products also. And we have the ability. to market
ourselves, to package ourselves, to advertise
ourselves in an effort to be interesting to the
people who come in contact with us, right? So,
you know, a particular product, right? If I hold
up, you know, a bottle of, you know, whatever
this is, and you might find this in a CVS or
a Walgreens or whatever store, convenience store
you shop in, and someone puts something on this
that makes it look interesting and it gets a
space on a shelf. You and I are different. We've
got the opportunity to actually approach our
potential customers, the people who we want to
be interested in us. And so I became fascinated
by this idea that people are products, but we
don't usually think of ourselves that way. And
we don't really, unless you work with a coach
like me who really sees that relationship, we
don't really put ourselves together like that.
in an effort to be more engaging to the world
that we come in contact with. And I find this
fascinating because most people, Don, struggle.
tremendously with their interpersonal skills,
with their abilities to connect. Matter of fact,
I like to say that 90 % of the people who I come
in contact with struggle with some portion of
their communication skills. So that's kind of
the long and short. And I became really passionate
about helping people. One, people will pay me
to do it. But two, I know people really need
the help. So even when someone doesn't pay me,
the ability to help somebody realize this about
themselves and put themselves in a better place
as a result of my being able to help them is
a great feeling for me and for the person I get
to help. That's a great introduction. Yeah, I
think I'm really excited to unpack a lot of those
ideas. But firstly, expand on you just slightly
a little bit more. I'm curious, how have your
personal strengths and weaknesses influenced
the spot you find yourself in now and your career
position today? Right. Well, you know, one of
the things I realized early on in my career was
I did have some kind of a gift to be a public
speaker, a good voice and the confidence to get
up in front of other people and not be embarrassed
to share my ideas or not think that something
I was going to say was not going to be well received.
And I think it's naturally not having that fear,
which has really enabled me to be in a space
like this now. Do I wish that I would have pursued
public speaking as a profession 30 years ago?
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's not something that
I had ever thought about at that time. Coaching
wasn't really something that somebody did. And
it wasn't like somebody that I had a mentor that
would say, hey, Glenn, you seem to be really
good with public speaking. Instead of just doing
that internally within the company, why don't
you look into doing that outside the company?
So that that. talent that I was born with, that
ability to do that, to communicate and feel really
confident about it, kind of laid dormant for
a really long time in my career, other than when
I got the idea to stand up in front of a group
of... co -workers or people who are reporting
to me in a company and do some kind of a presentation.
I never really put the two together. It's a bit
of a regret that I have because I think I could
have really had a very advanced career in public
speaking had I pursued it sooner. And so, you
know, here I am. I still actually pursue it now.
But what's really interesting is, and this is
an important thing that I ask. my clients and
the people who hear me speak do. When I was about
10 years old, I was in some local summer camp
where I grew up in New Jersey. And it was one
of these places where you'd go from eight to
four in the afternoon, whatever. It was probably
free or cost a few dollars, whatever. It wasn't
really too extensive. It wasn't like some expensive
sleepaway camp in the mountains or something
that a lot of people do. And there was some kind
of a, in the middle of the summer, This thing
actually has some kind of a parents visiting
day, which a lot of camps do, right? Your parents
maybe come down and see what have they been doing
with my kid for the last four weeks? What are
they going to be doing for the next four weeks?
And whoever the counselors were at this thing
decided that they wanted to have a bit of an
entertainment program. And so they asked for
volunteers, would anybody be willing to get up
and sing? And I was already really into music
at that time. And I said, sure, you know, who
am I? I mean, whatever, I'll get up and I'll
sing for everybody. And everyone was like, oh,
great. We got, I don't know, you know, guinea
pig or whatever. But we got one kid to actually
volunteer to do this. Now, you know, the song
goes back, you know, a long way. It was a hit
song. When I was a kid and, you know, I got up
and I performed it. Now, whether I was good at
it or not, I don't know. But that for me was
probably an early clue at this is something that
I should really pursue in my life. And again,
I never really did. But when I look back on my
life now and say, where do the roots of this
come from? I can see them already when I was
10 years old, that getting up and performing
in front of people was something that. I should
probably be pursuing because I was comfortable
doing it, whereas most people are not. Yeah,
that's a great skill to just inherit to an extent.
I would not say that I'm a comfortable public
speaker and I've gotten better at it over the
past few years. But yeah, I think a lot of people
would resonate with the idea that it's not natural
for a lot of them. What about weaknesses? Are
there any sort of things that you knew that you
struggled with that kind of maybe not even? drove
you towards where you are now, but you knew you
didn't want to be involved in some sort of career
area or direction? Yeah. I mean, you know, we
all had the things that, you know, I will say
this, you know, I'm good with numbers. And so
when I say I'm good with numbers, I'm good with
common sense numbers about businesses and percentages
and things I need to know about. But when it
came to real accounting and that kind of work.
I could see early on that that was something
that I really didn't want to do. And I still
shy away from that even today. When it comes
time to doing bookkeeping entries and things
like that, I know how to do it. I can do it.
But it's not something that I really want to
endeavor to get into. And it's not that it's
a bad thing, but we all have to focus on the
things that we like. So if I would look at one
thing in my business stuff, so to speak, when
it gets really deep into numbers and things like
that, or programming, that kind of thing. I'm
not really somebody who's really looking to get
into the weeds on those kinds of things. And
so to me, the important message there is that
nobody is good at everything. And it's really
important to identify the things you're not good
at. And find somebody who is good at them, who
can either teach you how to do them, or if you
get into a place where you're fortunate enough
and you can afford to have someone do them for
you, sure, that's even better. But the idea that
people can do everything across the board is
a big mistake that a lot of people make. And
you're going to be hindered or hampered or get
to your ultimate goal much slower. Trying to
do everything yourself, including the things
you're not good at, rather than taking a step
back and saying, you know what, I just have to
admit it. This is not my thing. I need somebody
else to help me with it. I'm hearing themes of
team building in there. So how important is that
aspect of what you do in terms of providing value
to your clients? Do you add some team building
aspects in how to build a good team? mainly focusing
on the messaging and branding side of things?
So that's a great question. And it's not so much
that I have a team, but when someone comes to
me, one of the things that to me that somebody
still really needs to have is a really adequate
website. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't
have to be a $50 ,000, $100 ,000 website that
a big consumer company like McDonald's or Coca
-Cola would have and maintain. But it needs to
look professional, needs to look good enough
to represent you so that when someone goes and
starts searching for information about you, if
they happen onto your website, it's not going
to detract them from wanting to work with you.
And so is it something that I could do? Sure,
it is, but I'd much rather work with somebody
either on a private label basis where they develop
it under my umbrella, or I actually just turn
to the client and say, listen, I'm just going
to turn you on to this contact. They're great
at what they do. Let them develop your website.
Then you'll come back to me and we'll really
work on refining the copy. But go to somebody
who's really, really good. And similar things
with accounting. I wouldn't begin to start setting
up somebody's QuickBooks system. or giving them
advice on how to do their taxes, I would immediately
find somebody that I trust in my network and
just refer that person out and hope that within
that network of people that I have, when someone
runs into someone who needs the kind of help
that I provide. that they would refer that person
to me. And I think that's the most important
part about that team building when you're a solopreneur
like I am, is that I can't pretend to have an
accountant on staff or a bookkeeper on staff.
I don't. But if someone needs that kind of help,
I've got good people that I can refer them to.
I would say, yeah, that's sounding like just
the age -old importance of networking aspect
of it, which I think everybody kind of... echoes.
But yeah, that's a lot of great context. Yes.
Thank you for those answers there. So to get
back to kind of your main stuff, what are the
core features of effective messaging and why
should we care about implementing those? Well,
the first pillar in good communication is intentionality.
Most of the people that I come in contact with,
and it could be at networking events, group events,
one -on -one meetings, trade shows, any place
that you're going to come in contact with other
people, the majority of the world shows up without
preparing. There's no intentionality about it.
People just show up and they wing it. I've got
this cute anecdote about... I was doing a seminar
on elevator pitching for one of the networking
groups here on Long Island. This is a number
of years ago. And when I went around the room
just to take an unofficial poll before I started
getting into the content of teaching an elevator
pitch the way I do, show of hands, how many people
prepared for this meeting and practiced an elevator
pitch before they got here? And we went around
the room. One guy raised his hand and he said,
Oh, I was working on my pitch in the car on the
way over. You know, at least he was honest. And,
you know, my response back was, number one, you
know, we're all on the roads with you. Could
you do me a favor and pay attention to driving
and not working on your elevator pitch while
you're driving? But everybody else in the room,
you know, you just show up and you think that
you're going to be able to do this pitch well.
So, you know, the message I think received by
most of the people and message understood by
me. Right. It's bad enough that people have a
fear of public speaking. But the fact that they
don't prepare for it ahead of time makes it even
worse because the preparation can really solve
the issues of the inability to do it. So the
first one is being intentional about it, understanding
that you're showing up, you're meeting with other
people. And Don, what do you want to do? What's
the purpose? Right. Are you just getting up at
seven o 'clock in the morning and showing up
to this meeting to check a box off to say that
you did it? Or is there some reason that you're
going there? And when you're there, you want
to create some kind of interactions so that when
you leave, you feel like the purpose for going
to the meeting in the first place was fulfilled.
So number one is being intentional about it.
What do I want to accomplish when I'm there?
Number two is, what am I hoping to get out of
this when I get there? What do I want out of
it, right? Now, a lot of people will go around
and, you know, I think. a lot of people are still
using business cards i know a lot of people have
like you know a lot of different apps and things
now that you know touch my phone and all your
stuff will get in there i'm still an old school
believer in business cards i like the whole gesture
of it but when you go to these meetings and you
hear other people speaking about what they do
Were there particular people you were showing
up at this meeting that you wanted to meet? In
other words, if I'm an insurance salesperson
or I'm in real estate or I'm an attorney or you
fill in the blank, I'm a coach that helps people
with branding and messaging. I'm, you know, I'm
going in and I'm looking for people that I feel
like genuinely need my help. But what's your
profession? What's your purpose? Who are you
looking to meet? And so, again, being intentional
about what you're doing. One of the things that
I love to say is that, you know, not everybody
at any particular meeting is a customer of yours.
Matter of fact, you could go to a meeting with
30 people and none of those 30 people are your
customer. But if your message is really clear.
and your intentions are really clear, I guarantee
you that everybody at that meeting, all 30 of
those people at this theoretical meeting we're
talking about. They all know somebody who needs
whatever it is you do. So if you're an attorney,
someone's going to need an attorney out of those
30 people. Someone they know will eventually
need an attorney. Someone will eventually be
moving. They'll need a real estate agent. Somebody
will eventually need their taxes done. Somebody
will eventually need a dry cleaner or a coffee
shop or a restaurant or whatever it is you do.
And people, again, just, you know, I'll equate
it to this. They kind of wash in with the tide.
And then, you know, it's high tide. They're in
there for the meeting. And then the tide washes
out. And maybe some stuff gets left behind. Maybe
some stuff doesn't. But it's not intentional.
And if you're intentional about it, you're going
to come out of these meetings with a much better
sense of, did I accomplish what I was trying
to do there? And then, of course, there's intentionality
after the meeting, too. OK, now I got a half
a dozen business cards. What's my intention of
these? What do I want to do with these? So I
find that most people don't really have a method
for whatever they're doing. They pay to belong
to the networking group. They show up to the
meetings and they think that's the beginning
and end of it. Oh, and while I'm there, I'll
collect some cards. And there's really no bottom
line. What am I hoping to get out of this? And
when you're done with the amount of time that
you paid for it, did I get out of this what I
wanted to get out of it? Right? I just spent
a year doing this. I went to 12 meetings. Did
I come up with 144, 12 contacts at each one?
Did I come up with three? Did I get any business
out of it? Does it make any sense for me to renew
next year? And again, people just, you know,
it's kind of like a sheep mentality. Everybody's
doing it. I'll do it. That's a safe place to
be. It does also make it easier to make yourself
a little more separated if you do do a little
bit of preparation. If so much of the masses
are are just kind of coming in at high tide,
as you say, then that kind of a default means
you don't have to do a huge amount of preparation
to just show that you've thought about it a little
bit beforehand, which is nice. Okay, I'm going
to combine two of these questions here because
I think you asked or you addressed some of that
in that response, particularly about what are
some of the challenges that you're trying to
help people with. So that was part of the first
question. And then you also mentioned elevator
pitches. And so I'm curious, what are some common
mistakes that you see in people when they're
developing? their elevator pitches um and then
any other challenges you want to throw in as
well sure okay so so let's start with the basics
about an elevator pitch and it's funny you would
think this is a little 30 second deal how much
could really be involved in this but just like
any speech that you're going to make, you've
got some kind of point that you want your audience
to come away with. So for starters, for starters,
when you're doing an elevator pitch, whether
it's here in the world of virtual or you're doing
it actually in person, the good old fashioned
way, the first thing is that we start to size
you up before you even begin to speak. So the
first thing you need to really do is you really
need to be professional in the way you're showing
up. in your energy level, your body language,
your positivity. People like to be around other
positive people. So slinking into the corner,
you know, not feeling good about being there,
being afraid, people sense all that stuff. And
you'll find that there's a lot of resistance
to people who behave in that manner. Again, intentional
preparation, really huge. I like teaching an
elevator pitch in the following way. You need
to find something about your product or your
service that you can tie a question or a statistic
to that will get people immediately engaged in
what you do. As a for instance, I will open up
my typical elevator pitch and say something like
90 % of the people that I come in contact with
struggle with their elevator pitch. Their communication
skills, their personal branding, their fear of
public speaking. One of those or all of those.
Nine out of ten people. So if that's you, you
have no fear to know that you're amongst a lot
of people. The good news is I can easily help
you get through all of that and learn how to
create a positive impression by really helping
you understand how to develop your pitch. how
to execute it so that going forward, it's a skill
you'll have for the rest of your life. And so
that statistic at the top, the idea there is
to get people interested in something that involves
them, right? You know, if you're an insurance
agent, right? Do you have a young family that
might be left unprotected if you suddenly passed
away and left them with no money? Right. This
is something that, you know, somebody who is
the breadwinner or is responsible for their children
should hear and immediately be alarmed about
because they're not protected there. Right. So
we want to say something at the top that draws
everybody in, gets everybody thinking, I need
to hear a little bit more about this. There's
something interesting about what this person
is saying. And then, of course, we want to develop
something unique about what we do. Right. So
in my case, once I say that 90 percent of the
people. struggle with this. Don't worry. I've
got really great methods for helping you get
through this. It's something I'm really good
at doing with people. It puts people at ease.
Oh, I do struggle with this. Maybe this is a
guy that I should be in touch with. Some of the
common mistakes people make. First one, second
one. First one is always not being prepared,
but using what I will call SAT or collegiate
words in their pitch. In an effort, to try to
make themselves sound smarter, they actually
have a tendency to confuse the audience. And
it's an interesting part about sales. A confused
customer never buys. Well, somebody who's confused
about your elevator pitch doesn't typically raise
their hand and tell you they didn't understand
what you were saying because it puts them in
a bad light. And so people will just sit around
the room and nod their heads and let you do that,
but they really don't know what you're talking
about. The other problem with that is if someone
doesn't know a word and their brain starts thinking
about what's that word, I need to know it, I
don't want to sound dumb, they're no longer listening
to the rest of your pitch. A couple of other
ones. A really good elevator pitch is 30, 40
seconds max. So it's really important that, you
know, we all have one of these now attached to
us. Record yourself. Watch yourself doing the
pitch. See how long you're going. See if you're
interesting. at all, which is really, really
important as well to be self -critical about
what you're doing. And the last one, an effective
elevator pitch, and a lot of people make this
mistake, Don, has nothing to do with sales. Nobody
is buying your house, your business, your product,
any of these things based on your elevator pitch.
they're not you're not selling what you're trying
to do is get somebody interested in having a
longer conversation with you or going to your
website or asking for a business card so that
they can be further engaged later after your
meeting after you've had the chance to do that
so people make this mistake oh i did my pitch
and no one purchased my solar roof system they're
not going to what you want to do is say to somebody
Hey, did you know that literally, literally,
I can save you X amount of money by installing
solar panels on your roof? The state has a program
that will enable you to make a minimum investment
to do this. If you've got questions about it,
I'd love to answer them for you. It's a free
consultation. Get in touch with me. It's a foot
in the door. That's all it is. That's all it
is. And people constantly feel disappointed or
let down because they did their pitch. And now
they're looking around the room to see, you know,
who's got their pen out, you know, to sign a
sales contract. And it's just not like that.
I was drawn to the first part of this that you
mentioned, particularly even before you start
speaking and you're getting sized up based on
energy and positivity and body language. All
that in my mind can kind of be grouped into charisma.
So how do you practice developing charisma? Because
I think some of these other things feel more
like, you know, you can write down what your
pitch is on paper and you can refine it. But
I feel like charisma is something that is a little
more abstract. practice developing charisma.
Well, look, you know, it's true. You know, this
again is something that's a skill that somebody
has to work on, right? People generally want
to be around other people that are curious and
that are engaging and again, are confident, right?
And there's a big difference between confident
and cocky. You know, you don't want to walk into
a room like everybody else is lucky to be in
the room with you. But you generally want to
have a good energy level and feel really good
about going. And so a lot of times people will
bring their issues with them to wherever they're
going. Whatever was going on before you walked
into the room, you've heard this expression,
check your ego at the door. Everybody else has
all their issues also. You're now showing up
and in a sense, it's showtime. Right. It's showtime.
Even if you've never acted in a play or been
in some situation where you had to play out a
part in front of other people, you now are. Right.
This is essentially a stage. You've got an audience.
You need to feel good about what you're wearing
that, you know, people think that. You know,
you look good or you at least look the part,
you're dressed the part for, you know, what you're
playing today. And you need to really think about
it like that. You know, a lot of this lack of
confidence or lack of charisma is all based in
fear, right? I'm afraid people are going to reject
me. I'm afraid people are not going to buy my
product. I'm afraid people are not going to like
me. And when you go into a meeting with any of
that mindset predisposed to the negative, Very
often, that's exactly what you're going to give
off and people can sense that. To the contrary,
if you walk into the room and you're dressed
well and you feel like, hey, look, you know,
I'm not whoever, whoever you're, you know, I'm
not Ryan Reynolds. You know, I'm not, you know,
who was, you know, in the. And the Barbie movies,
you know, these super attractive people. But
we have to work with the palette that we have,
right? That's who we are. But the one thing we
can do is show up neatly dressed, professional,
prepared, on time, right? That's another one.
People show up to these meetings and they're
shuffling in late and they've got all kinds of
papers hanging out of their briefcases and things
like that. All of these things, we as human beings,
it's almost like... you know, if anybody in your
audience can relate to the Terminator movies,
right? The Terminator robots that like, you know,
they immediately come in contact with a human
being and, you know, they use this great graphic
of. you know, the computer inside the robot's
head doing all these advanced calculations and
metrics about this person. Are they a threat?
Are they okay? How do I deal with this person?
Do I just want to make this? And our minds really
do work like that. And so we're making all these
evaluations immediately. And so when you are
dressed the part, when you feel confident about
who you are, Other people will sense that about
you. Now, not everybody, but we all have to realize
too that not everybody is meant for everybody
else. But the idea of not being mortally wounded
because somebody wasn't interested in your pitch
or when you went to shake their hand, they went
to have a conversation with somebody else or
there was some kind of awkward silence is just
not the end of the world. And we just have to
be intentional about our feelings there too.
Hey. you know what, the next meeting I'm going
to go to, I'm going to go in and I'm going to
try to do this. This is my intention. I want
to meet a half a dozen people. I want to make
real solid connections. I'm going to show up
on time. I'm going to have some interesting conversations
with people. And that's my goal for the meeting.
And that really, you know, as somebody who's
new to networking, that would be a great place
to start. And then you just hone your skill going
forward, get more comfortable with who you are,
get more comfortable with your public speaking.
And we haven't really talked about storytelling
at all. But, you know, once you get past that
initial conversation, right, it might not be
an elevator pitch. Maybe it's a personal pitch
about, you know, about. You're going to a more
social meeting than a business meeting. And again,
you want to break the ice. And so, you know,
what are some interesting things that you can
talk about that are not so deep that somebody
is not going to know what it is, but are not
so on the surface either about, you know, we
can all talk about the weather or we can all
try to talk about the game last night. But, you
know, we can come up with, you know, with other
interesting things, you know, about, you know,
hey, you know, the last time I went to one of
these meetings. You know, this happened. Do you
ever find that happens to you? And just again,
get somebody engaged and speaking and then be
quiet and listen to them. You know, people love
that. They love somebody who will listen to them.
And, you know, the majority of us are probably
not listened to nearly enough. Right. Yeah, I
like that. I like that you brought up storytelling.
I feel like that is that's one that you hear
that and you immediately think of. Kind of like
kids getting rid of bedtime stories or something
like that. But it's such a pervasive technique
that captures people in so many more areas than
that. So I'm glad you brought that up. Just in
the interest of time, just to keep moving along.
How does communicating with different audiences
impact your approach to messaging? Well, of course,
right. It's a great question. I mean, you know.
Again, you've got to have the intention of when
you're going and speaking to different audiences,
who, you know, who is in the audience and what
can you do to tailor your particular talk? Like,
for instance, you know, I'm doing a talk this
week, actually, you know, not really in your
neck of the woods, but in Virginia. And it's
at the ECPI University. What we're trying to
do there is tailor the elevator pitches that
they utilize for their company to either be appealing
to companies that might want to have a partnership
with them that offers some kind of scholarship
toward grad school, or they want to develop externships.
with uh with companies that will hire students
on a short -term basis or even bring them in
on a short -term basis in terms of what it is
so while the the overall workshop that i'm doing
is on how to power up your elevator pitch we
do you know i will take the time and have developed
unique points that are specific to this client
that we can incorporate into that talk. So now
it's no longer just generic. You need to come
up with a statistic that makes it interesting.
I've actually developed statistics and facts
and interesting things that relate specifically
to this client and how the client's staff would
utilize what I teach in order to attract more
business for the school. But, you know, and just
to go a little further, you know, if you're addressing
first time business owners, right, then you really
want to be talking about things that would be,
you know, revolving around startup. Have you
incorporated, you know, what is your initial
website look like? Have you developed a why statement
about your business? Whereas if we're talking
about bigger customers, bigger companies, then
maybe we want to focus in on things like, right,
you've got a customer base. Is anybody now inside
your company working on a second, third, fourth
opportunity that might apply to the same customers
that you have already? And a lot of times companies
don't realize this. They've got a loyal base
of customers. Simple example, you know, I'm Nike
and I've got a great business. with obviously
athletic shoes, right? But someone's going to
use those shoes. They're going to go out and
run. What can I give them to go out and run in?
Oh, of course, let's give them socks. Oh, let's
give them shorts. Let's give them sweatshirts
and hats and all of that. So whereas the company
built a loyal following based on just the foot,
the footwear, what did it turn into? You know,
now it's an overall apparel company because they
had people that were loyal to the sneakers. and
said, hey, they make good sneakers, I'll bet
they'll make a good t -shirt, bet they'll make
a good hat, I bet they'll make a good sweatshirt,
and I'll bet they'll make good stuff for golf
and for tennis and all these other things. So
very often, you've got to cater that speech to
the level of customer that you're talking to.
So now if I've got people who have been in business
for 15 years, they're looking for new avenues
of growth within their companies. Well, A lot
of times they don't have the creativity internally
to come up with new things that their existing
customer base might adopt and might appreciate
and might utilize based on the integrity of the
brand and borrowing it from the essence, from
the startup of where it all happened. Nike is
a great example of that. Yeah, I think I'm sure
another variable in that is you mentioned earlier
the. not using really long SAT words or something
like that or different types of jargon. And I'm
sure that is also a variable in your audience
as well. So one other question for you, two other
actually ones. This is not necessarily maybe
your field of expertise, but I'm just curious
what your thoughts are from somebody in a different
field than I typically occupy. So what do you
believe are some of the most important ways that
AI will impact society, maybe in your field or
the business field or society in general? Right.
That's a great question also, Don. Look, there's
no doubt the AI is here to stay. I mean, you
know, I will even say that about two weeks ago,
I got a post on Instagram and the person in the
post was not real. And it took me a few minutes
to actually realize that that was the case. And
while AI and things like ChatGPT can supply a
great base of business, they're still not really
going to be able to get into a conversation that
you and I are going to have in terms of what
are your real needs. From a generic standpoint,
sure. I can absolutely say, you know, I need
a few points about elevator pitch that are key.
But if I really want to bore into your specific
elevator pitch, I really need to take the time
and understand who you are and what you're about
and refine that and put it into my own language.
Because very often, you know, people don't realize
that you can see kind of right through this.
I'll go into LinkedIn as a perfect example. And
someone will have a description of about, you
know, they got this about section and it's about
them. vanilla ice cream it is in terms of somebody's
description. They've actually gone into ChatGPT
or another service like that and said, hey, I'm
an economics major and I'm trying to get a job
on Wall Street. Can you create a good about me
that looks like this is who I am? And as soon
as I read it, I can see that it's been completely
done by AI and it really has nothing specifically
to do with the person. And that's the last thing
in the world that you want to do. So I would
say, look, It's a great way to build a foundation
of something that you want to start working on
because it'll do a lot of the research for you.
But ultimately, whatever you're doing, you want
it to be in your voice. You want to be the uniqueness
that's in that because that can't be replaced.
That can't be replaced, right? Your voice, your
unique point of view. The experiences that I've
had working for all those companies that you
named earlier on, Universal and Disney and Revlon
and selling to Walmart and Target and all these
other places, give me a unique voice that a chat
GPT message can't replace. I really appreciate
that perspective. Yeah, I feel like that resonates
with a lot of people, but hearing it spelled
out that way is very helpful. Yeah, I'm working
on a... I just gave a presentation yesterday
actually about scientists using AI and like where
the boundaries are of when we can use it without
kind of degrading our critical thinking skills.
And I think a lot of what you said is very relevant
there in terms of making sure that your voice
and your sprinkle of personality or whatever
you're adding to it is kept sacred really in
terms of what comes out of the product there.
Okay. One last question for you. We're getting
up on there. So what's just a general piece of
advice that is important to you that you could
leave us with? Okay. So here's what I'd love
to leave everybody that gets to hear this is,
look, recognize that regardless of where you
are in your life cycle, right? I'm a bit older
than you, Don. You're still in school. No matter
who you are, you have already had a tremendous
set of experiences that are really worthwhile
in terms of your ability to connect with potential
employers, to connect with potential friends,
business associates, colleagues, and all the
rest of it. Take the time to think about the
things that you've been through already and how
they've made an impression on you. Or what the
result of them. were this is not a challenge
to put together a resume this is a challenge
to put together the experiences that you've had
and the lessons that you've learned as a result
of what you've been through so earlier when i
related that story about um you know being a
10 year old kid in uh in summer camp that that's
never going to show up on on a resume or a skill
set and yet when somebody says right you know
how did you know like you did earlier that this
was something that you wanted to endeavor into,
the fact that I've taken the time to reflect
back on my life and pull these experiences out
and actually write about them in terms of stories.
becomes an inventory that is uniquely yours.
And when you take the time to do that, you begin
to realize that you are the only person that
brings these things, these experiences to the
table. Now, another thing that you might find
when you do that is, you know, I'll very often
say to a student, you know, okay, what profession
do you want to go into? You know, someone said
to me, you know, recently that, you know, they
wanted to go into the medical field. And I said,
why? Well, because I like helping people. Why?
Because I know that I can make a good living
there. But why do you really want, why is this
something that's meaningful to you? And as we
peeled the layers of the onion, more or less
on this person's young life or story, turns out
that when they were really young, their parent
was a nurse. And they got taken to work one day
and were incredibly impressed by the interactions
that this student mother was having with their
patients. And it really left an indelible mark
on them that they hadn't thought about until
we were having this discussion about why they
wanted to go into medicine in the first place.
Now, so there's a couple of reasons that that's
really beneficial. One, it definitely takes you
back to something that you've got a real interest
in that happened at a very early age when it
made an impression on you. But two, when you
get the opportunity now in an interview to speak
with somebody who needs to be impressed with
you and you think about, you know, an imaginary
hallway. with 45 other students interviewing
for the same internship or the same job or the
same residency. And the person sitting behind
the desk doing the interview is hearing the same
rote chat GPT answers to their questions all
day long. And this person who I had the opportunity
to impact says, you know, medicine really means
a lot to me because when I was 10, I got to go
to work with my mother who was a nurse. And I
was so... absolutely taken back by the relationships
she had with her patients that I thought, you
know, this is something that I might really want
to go into someday. That story, that story is
the one that the person doing all these interviews
with other students will remember. And so that's
somebody who really cares about whether or not
they get a job here. They're not just doing it
to check a box or because they heard this was
a good profession to go into. So taking stock,
I call it actually. for my clients, mining your
history for storytelling gold. And I actually
have a list of about on a, on a Google spreadsheet
of about 60 different threads of different lessons
along the way. And by the way, they weren't all
good. Some of them weren't so good, but nonetheless,
there's something to pull out of them that somewhere
down the line will come in handy for me. to weave
into a presentation I'm doing and really leave
a memorable impression with somebody. So I would
say it's one of the most important things beyond
all that other intentional stuff you and I spoke
about, Don, was to really take a look at yourself
and pull the stories out that make you unique
because it does one other thing besides make
you interesting. It makes you really proud of
who you are and what you've been through. And
that pride... We'll start to show through in
all the other interactions that you have with
people because you'll start to realize how special
you actually are in a world of billions of people.
Nobody else has your stories. I feel like we
just have to end there. That's such a beautiful
way to end that. Yeah, that also is a great way
to practice the charisma. Also, if you do that,
all that mining, as you said, it starts to just
kind of. bubble out of you starts to show and
just become inherent in you. Um, yeah, that's
all really great. Well, Glenn, this has been,
this has been fantastic. I really appreciate
all your time and, uh, giving such a detailed
answers to all these questions. And I think we've
had a really great conversation to give the audience
today. Terrific. Okay. It's been great to meet
you. And if anybody needs to get in touch with
me, it's Glenn at alwaysbeencreative .com. It's
Glenn Rudin on LinkedIn, which is where I love
communicating with people. And I constantly am
putting out posts about strategy. branding, messaging,
all those different kinds of things. If you're
an Instagram fan, you can find Glenn Rudin, the
message master on Instagram as well. And I'll
give you links to all the different places people
can find me so you can include those for your
audience. And it's been a real pleasure meeting
you and look forward to future interactions,
Don. Thank you. Great. Thank you.