Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Empower Your Team: Learn to Lead Across Differences

Empower Your Team: Learn to Lead Across Differences written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Stephanie Chung

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Stephanie Chung, a bestselling author and transformative leader with over 30 years of experience driving growth and building high-performing teams. Stephanie, a trailblazer in private aviation as the first African American woman to lead a private jet company, shared insights from her book, Ally Leadership: How to Lead People Who Are Not Like You.

Our conversation explored the evolving dynamics of modern workplaces, the importance of building bridges across differences, and actionable strategies leaders can use to foster inclusion and trust. Whether you’re managing diverse teams, navigating generational divides, or seeking tools to lead empathetically, Stephanie’s advice is a game-changer for today’s leaders.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • ALLY stands for Ask, Listen, Learn, You Take Action: This framework encourages leaders to foster inclusion through curiosity, empathy, and meaningful action.
  • Generational and cultural differences require adaptability: Leaders must embrace humility and recognize that managing diverse teams is essential in today’s workplace.
  • Psychological safety is key to innovation: Creating a safe space for employees to voice ideas and concerns builds trust and drives team success.
  • Embrace vulnerability as a leader: Acknowledging your own learning curve fosters openness and connection within the team.
  • Leadership is about connection, not control: Success comes from asking questions, actively listening, and taking purposeful actions to support team members.

Chapters:

  • [01:03] Who is Stephanie Chung?
  • [01:40] Introduction to ALLY Leadership
  • [03:12] Diversity in Leadership: Broadening the Conversation
  • [05:09] Cultivating Cultural Intelligence and Effective Leadership
  • [14:21] Overcoming Unconscious Bias Through Human Connection
  • [20:16] Barriers and Benefits of Leading Diverse Teams
  • [22:57] Creating a Psychologically Safe Workplace

More About Stephanie Chung:

 

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John Jantsch (00:01.142)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Stephanie Chung. She's a bestselling author, business leader and strategic innovator with over 30 years of experience in driving growth and transforming businesses. She's a former chief growth officer for Wheels Up and was the first African American to lead a private jet company, JetSuite. She's also the author of a book we're going to talk about today.

Ally leadership, how to lead people who are not like you. So Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie (00:37.496)

Thanks for having me, John. I'm excited to be here.

John Jantsch (00:40.384)

I suppose, and I typically find myself doing this, getting definitions on the table of terms that are in titles. how would you, if somebody says, I'm hearing a lot about this ally leadership thing, what is that?

Stephanie (00:53.634)

Yeah, so ally is actually an acronym. So it's a great question, right? So the reason I didn't write and call the book Allyship is because it's a little bit different. So ally stands for ask, listen, learn, and you take action.

And the reason why I wrote the book, John, is because at the end of the day, the whole world's changing, right? And we as leaders have to get on board and realize that the train has left the station and sticking our head in the sand isn't going to be helpful for any business leader. So when you think of the work climate, right, we've got five, soon to be six generations working, which is unheard of. So trying to lead a boomer versus a zoomer can be a challenge all within itself.

John Jantsch (01:12.14)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (01:32.994)

So we have the sixth generations working. We have women as the majority of the population. So that changes the dynamics as well. And then we have the ethnic demographics that are shifting, right? So the, you know, ethnic races are growing, non-ethnic race shrinking, not to mention people with different neurodiversities or different, you know, abilities or LGBTQ plus communities. So what leaders have now is an entire workforce of people who are not like each other and not like them.

John Jantsch (02:01.804)

Right, right.

Stephanie (02:02.092)

And so the real goal is how do we lead people who are not like us? And that's really the point behind ally leadership. The only way you're gonna be successful is to ask, listen, learn, and then you take action.

John Jantsch (02:14.594)

You know, one of the things I find really fascinating about you writing this book, so applicable, as you just said, to many leadership roles, but we're so used to this coming from somebody who looked like me, a white male, right? Who is saying, you're going to work with different generations now. And so I think it's so fabulous, but also fascinating that it's coming from an African-American female.

Stephanie (02:28.834)

Yes. Yeah. Right.

Stephanie (02:40.782)

Well, thank you for saying that. Thank you. You have no idea because that is that was that's actually why I wrote the book, John, because I felt like the entire conversation was, you know, Mr. White guy, you've got to figure out how to lead women and people of color. Right. And so so, you know, yes, I addressed that in the book because obviously I can't, you know, avoid the elephant in the room. But I felt like the conversation needed to go deeper and wider.

John Jantsch (02:52.386)

Right, right.

Stephanie (03:04.856)

The truth of the matter is all of us, it's not just the white guy, all of us are going to be leading people who are not like them. And so how do you do it successfully? I'll take myself as an example. You mentioned in my bio, I come from private aviation. That is a male dominated and specifically a white male dominated industry. And yet I've been able to reach the highest level. And so I, as an African-American female,

John Jantsch (03:21.346)

Sure.

Stephanie (03:29.89)

was I remember and you know, I opened the book with the story on how I look at the first team I've been given. They're all white men and they're looking at me like, where'd she come from, right? And I'm looking at them like, boy, right? And so at the end of the day, know, it really isn't just, you know, white men have to know how to lead everybody. It's everybody has to know how to lead everybody. I always say the leader of today, John has to know how to lead all God's children, every race, every creed, every gender. That's the job.

And so that's what the book is really designed for, is to hopefully give tools and to help people who find themselves in that predicament as to, here's what I did really good, here's what I did horribly wrong, and hopefully those tools can be helpful for them as well.

John Jantsch (04:14.306)

You know, it's unfortunately a fact of life that a lot of people grow up without a lot of cultural diversity in their life. And so, you know, how do you, how do leaders start gaining that cultural intelligence? It's like going to another country almost, you know, right? It's like, I don't know how to act here, right? So how do they gain that?

Stephanie (04:21.892)

Yeah.

Stephanie (04:30.166)

Yeah. Yeah, well, I think it's twofold. One, you have to come to grips that you're going to make a mistake. And I really want people to grab hold of that. It is none of us for, I shouldn't say none of us, but most of us are not dealing with life or death situations, right? So you're going to make a mistake. So that's the very first thing, because what I find, John, and the reason why I open with that is I find that people are so afraid to make a mistake that they do nothing.

John Jantsch (04:38.754)

Yeah. Yes.

Stephanie (04:57.396)

Right and it's like well if you come to grips with you're going to make a mistake then that will ease the the the pressure I guess so that when you make the mistake then you're okay with it because people people will know it's about your heart It's I always say this whole thing is a head and heart issue right if someone is and I give a story in the book about a situation that I had 30 years ago with with someone that

was so not like me and I knew that I was gonna walk in and make a bunch of mistakes, right? Because it was just unfamiliar territory for me. But what I find is people who are not like you would much rather feel like they understand that your heart is in the right place. They'd rather you talk to them than not talk to them because you're afraid of making the mistake. So how to answer your question, how do you actually go about it?

John Jantsch (05:38.114)

This

Stephanie (05:47.188)

One, get your mindset right. I'm going to make a mistake and nobody's going to die in this process, right? The second part is, then you come at it with a heart, which is curiosity versus dictating, right? Because nobody wants to hear your opinion on how you see the world when you don't even understand their world.

Right? And that's usually the biggest adjustment, especially we as leaders have to make. Nobody cares about your thoughts. What we care about is you actually trying to ask questions, not with the understanding of I'm trying to ask so that I can seem like I care. No, no, you really have to humble yourself and understand that this person's world is completely different than mine. I don't have enough education to start dictating to them how they should be running their life.

but I can ask questions out of sheer curiosity and truly listen. And one of the things I like to have people realize is you don't have to have all the answers. You don't even have to have all the questions. Just start off asking the basic questions like, know, how are you? Tell me a little bit about your upbringing, your childhood, et cetera. That will then guide you with the next set of questions. Again, I think because people are so afraid and let's face it, society also hasn't been very graceful.

Right? People make a mistake and society cancels people and then people are afraid to make a move because they're afraid of being socially slaughtered or canceled. So everybody has to adjust. It's not just the leader. The whole world has to adjust. The world is different. And if we can give each other some grace and come at it through a head and heart perspective, then we're not that far off because we actually have much more in common than we do apart. So the easiest way to do it is ask questions, listen.

John Jantsch (07:01.055)

Mm-hmm. Peace.

John Jantsch (07:07.542)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie (07:28.396)

learn and decide to ask more questions. And then use your privilege, because we all have it, right? It's not just white people having privilege. Everybody's got privilege. So use it whenever you can to help the other person that you're in charge of leading.

John Jantsch (07:30.146)

Okay.

John Jantsch (07:42.262)

I suspect from the leader, a large amount of vulnerability, especially early on, has to be there too, right? I mean, to say, like in your case, you walked in, I've never worked with a team of all white guys. know, right? Almost like acknowledge that, right? Up front, and I'm going to make mistakes. I think that probably goes a long way to at least getting some grace in the beginning, doesn't it?

Stephanie (07:54.968)

Yeah, right, Yep.

Stephanie (08:03.908)

Exactly. And even when we think if we go even one step further, because I know a lot of your audience are small business owners, right? One of the best things that we can do when trying to solve a problem, I used to this with my teams and I sold, you know, oversaw billion dollar sales teams. Very first thing I would do is sit down with them and go in front of a whiteboard and say, OK, listen, guys, here's what we're being asked to do. And I could really use your help on how you think we should do it.

Right, so when you talk about humbling yourself, it's true in every aspect of leadership. If you really want to be an effective leader, you really have to know how to eat humble pie as your specialty, right? Because then people realize like, no one is expecting you to have all the answers. That's true in business. It's also true in leadership.

John Jantsch (08:31.81)

Mm-hmm.

John Jantsch (08:40.097)

Yeah, yeah.

Stephanie (08:47.234)

And so when you're leading people who are not like you, no one's expecting, especially the person who's not like you, they're not expecting you to know everything about their lifestyle. They're not expecting you to be familiar with the little nuances that there's no way you would know. What they are expecting of you is that you would ask, listen, learn, and then you would take action. And the reason why I keep driving that take action home, is because you can't call yourself an ally.

Like this isn't a trophy, right? A participation trophy. You cannot call yourself an ally. Somebody else can call you an ally, but you can't call yourself an ally. And the only, like, just like I can't call myself a nice person. Like you can go, you know what, met Stephanie, she's a nice person. But I can't go, you know what, I'm a nice person. Like based on what, right? So same is true for ally. You know, you, you, when you take action, people will see it and then they will say, you're an ally.

If they don't see it, they're not gonna say it. And just because you said it doesn't make it true.

John Jantsch (09:46.764)

Yeah. So is there an example of kind of a challenging moment that you had that you think really not only tested your ability, but maybe kind of informed some of what shows up in the book?

Stephanie (10:00.3)

Yeah, there's a story. It seems like it's everybody's favorite story. So I won't go too far into it because I won't spoil it for your listeners. But I tell a story about I was asked to meet with a person because at the time I was in the cosmetic industry and this friend of mine who was a behavioral specialist had asked if I would meet with one of her patients. And I was like, sure, know, no problem because the patient had a desire to get into the makeup cosmetic industry. And so I just want to pick my brain.

So once I said yes, then she shared with me that this person was transgender. Now this was 30 years ago, John. So I honestly had never heard the word, right? I didn't know anything about transgender. I didn't know what it meant. Like I just didn't know. And so once she told me that and I said yes, then I told her,

teach me, educate me, like what does this actually mean mentally, physically, you know, the whole thing, right? I need to be armed so that I don't look like a complete idiot right now in this luncheon. And so she did her best. But what was interesting, and I tell this story from several different perspectives, what was interesting is when I had that meeting at the restaurant with the transgender person.

John Jantsch (10:57.303)

Yeah

Stephanie (11:11.78)

And I tell the story from my perspective sitting there, from the restaurant attendees perspective sitting there, because again, this was 30 years ago, it wasn't like recently, right? And just every single role that happened as you're looking at someone, in my case, as a person who's not like me. Now, I'm used to walking into a restaurant and maybe being the only woman or being the only black person or what have you. So I understand the dynamics that go on there. But what I saw and witnessed from

their, you know, from what the dynamics were for them walking in the room was very, very different. Something I'd never seen before. And so that's an example. And again, I won't go really deep into the story because I spent a lot of time on this story because I know that everybody who reads the book can find themselves in that restaurant scene. I never give, you know, direction as to what's right, what's wrong. That's not for me to do. But what it does do is I promise you, when you read the book, you're going to find yourself in one of those settings.

either as the wait staff or the person sitting in the restaurant or the person sitting across the person or and and you will find yourself there and Literally probably have a moment of like wow because I in the chapter with what would you have done? Right. So yeah, this book is for making people think John

John Jantsch (12:23.892)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Awesome.

So, unfortunately, we know there are a percentage of people that are biased and bigoted. I mean, they're just there. However, there are a lot of really well-intentioned people that have pretty deep, unconscious biases. They don't mean to have them. They don't mean to have them show up the way they show up. how do people, especially this leader that you're talking about, how do you get people to start recognizing and overcoming those?

Stephanie (12:36.824)

Yeah, that's how it is. Yep.

Stephanie (12:45.656)

Sure. Yep.

Stephanie (12:55.692)

Yeah, that's such a great question because what I love is that you started with the fact that we all have it. There is nobody, nobody that doesn't have it. one of the best ways to get over it is to, once you realize, okay, I've got it, is just to realize I have to, I've been programmed to see people a certain way.

Period, right? Doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It's just what I've been programmed. And I do spend some time in the book talking about the science behind unconscious and conscious bias, because it really does start, again, I go as a head and heart issue, right? The brain is gonna do what it finds the easiest thing to do. And so the brain will, if it sees something that's not familiar or not like it, right, for part of it, sometimes bias is actually a good thing, believe it or not, because there's a safety mechanism part of that as well.

Now, when it gets becoming bad is when you're judging everybody and of clumping them in there and you're in group or out group with absolutely no conversation to be had or because you've read something and you've never actually met a person like that. So the very first thing that we have to do is to realize that we all got it. The second thing you have to do is really to over to because our default system is to automatically put people whenever we meet them and we can just be looking at a picture of them. We don't have to physically be having a conversation.

Our brain will put them in an in-group or out-group. First thing it does, it's an instinct that you can't change, right? Those are from our caveman days. And again, there is safety in that. However, what you can change is to override that default system. And how you override it is by making the unfamiliar familiar. And the only way you make the unfamiliar familiar is to literally step out of your comfort zone. Simple stuff you can do, right? Go into a neighborhood that you're not used to going to.

You know, and usually in different neighborhoods, they have museums that are there. They have different restaurants. They have different cultural activities that you can do, galleries, et cetera. You must take the bull by the horns. You will not get culturally fluent sitting on your couch or hanging out in your same neighborhood with your same people, working the same job, having the same conversation. That's not how it works. But if you're serious about this, and I hope that every leader is, because again, world's changing. Train has left the...

John Jantsch (14:55.19)

questions.

Stephanie (15:10.936)

building. Either you're going to jump on board or you're going to be left behind. Those are your two options. But if you're that person who says, okay, I realize I don't know everything and nor do I need to, I'm going to make that effort. So now what I'm going to do is, you if I have a neighbor that maybe I've never spent time talking to, maybe have them over for coffee and get to know them and ask them questions. Or you don't want to do that. Go to a neighborhood that you've never really spent a whole lot of time through. You know where it is.

go in there, go to the museum, go to the local small business, talk, shop, ask questions. All of that is just mechanisms that will help you get more familiar so that when your brain meets somebody who's not like you, it doesn't automatically stick it in the out group. But now that person becomes a little bit more familiar. Or at least people who fall under that category. It's simple things. And the reason why I keep making it really, like do step one, step two, step three.

is because I feel like part of the problem that we've got in society, John, is people feel like this is this big, grandiose situation. And because the bigger it gets, the more overwhelming it gets, and the more scarier it gets, and the less we do. But if I just say to you, listen, you're going to make mistakes, accept that, right? And then make those little steps here and there, you're going to feel like, OK, all right, I've got permission. And what I will tell you, especially as a person of color,

John Jantsch (16:21.771)

Yes.

Eh.

Stephanie (16:31.126)

You know, you can tell when people are coming and asking you questions because they really do want to know versus they're asking you questions because they're trying to trap you or get you, you know, put your defenses or trigger you or gaslight you, whatever. Everybody knows. Right. So if your head and your heart is in the right place, you would be so surprised on how welcoming people would be to actually have that conversation with you.

John Jantsch (16:53.196)

Yeah. So I guess if talking about going to that neighborhood, if you really want the MBA, like the crash course, go to the beauty salon, right? Or the barbershop. So, you know, it's interesting. Obviously, I know where you're going with, you know, lead people who are not like you. But really, nobody's like me. Right. And so, and so some of the practices you're talking about really are just human

Stephanie (17:00.78)

Yeah, right? Or the barbershop, right? Exactly.

Stephanie (17:14.754)

Yes. Yep. Exactly,

John Jantsch (17:23.266)

contact practices aren't.

Stephanie (17:24.772)

100%. It's all about human connection, right? And as leaders or small business owners, we're in the people business, period. And people, really, we were designed, we were created for human connection. We are best when we're connected. If you look on the news, there's always that story that we all hate, but at the end of the day, the core is they didn't have anybody that they were connected to.

John Jantsch (17:48.758)

Yeah.

Stephanie (17:48.76)

Right? And so human connection is really why we were created. So what my whole focus with the book is to really drive home the point that you just said. None of us are alike. Right? I mean, we are wonderfully made. You know, we're unique in so many different ways. And so and that is if you if you start there, then then automatically it makes you realize also that people are not better or worse than you.

Right? because sometimes that's the issue as well. If you feel like you're better than other people, then you're going to treat them a certain way. But if you realize that you're no better than everybody else, right? We're all wonderfully made. Then that allows you to come into the conversation with a different heart stance, which then allows the person who you're speaking to to receive you a certain way as well.

John Jantsch (18:35.82)

So what are some of the barriers that, you know, we always have to drag out, like, here's the hard part. What are some of the barriers that you've seen have really prevented leaders from truly embracing this approach?

Stephanie (18:42.606)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (18:48.426)

Usually it's when they make a mistake, they may have said something wrong or come off the wrong way, and then all of a sudden they're chastised. And then that kind of scathing review makes them never want to do it again. So that's usually what I've seen. The flip side though, because we do talk a lot, especially in our country, about inclusivity and things of that nature.

John Jantsch (18:52.791)

Yeah, yeah.

John Jantsch (19:00.001)

Yeah, right.

John Jantsch (19:10.518)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (19:11.64)

What we don't really talk about the fact that leading diverse teams actually can be very challenging. And it's not because the team is diverse, right? A diverse team, there's enough statistics out there, diverse teams simply perform better. So from a sheer business perspective, it just makes good business sense to create a team of all-stars versus, you know, just like in sports, right? Nobody's gonna have a basketball team with all forwards.

Right? Like you're never going to win. So you have to have a team where everybody plays a different position, has a different gift, talent, et cetera. And that then means that the team has to, by default, be diverse. Because people think of diversity as far as just race, diversity in communication, diversity of how they think, diversity of perspective. mean, diversity is a big word that covers a lot of things. So that's the first thing. But that's usually what happens is people feel like they've made a mistake. And so that's what stops them in their tracks.

John Jantsch (19:34.23)

Right, right.

Stephanie (20:03.064)

But the flip side is what I would say is yes, leading a diverse team can be hard, not because of the team, but because you've got to make sure that you're letting everybody speak their piece and how they may speak their piece because how they see the world may be very, very different.

So as a leader, you gotta have like real leadership skills, right? To make sure that you can manage those conversations and the differences that will come from it and the different perspectives because that's the secret sauce and how you get a different, more powerful result, right? But you as a leader have to check yourself. If you're kind of an okay leader, this is gonna be tough, right? But if you're a real leader that is very strong in communication and bringing out the best in people and you're secure enough.

John Jantsch (20:32.322)

you

Stephanie (20:46.286)

to be able to allow people to challenge each other or even challenge your thought process. Now you've got a team that is unstoppable because if you get a bunch of people presented and focused on a common cause, literally will live, like they will not be stopped. But that's the job of the leader. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? And what is it the role that you play as to how this business is successful?

John Jantsch (21:09.426)

It's funny you talk about that diversity. I've always contended the best marriages are very diverse. Individuals, right? And the best partnerships in business. People bring a whole different side of it. How does a leader create a safe place for employees, psychologically safe place for employees, given what you've been talking about?

Stephanie (21:14.048)

Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes.

I love that. I love that.

Stephanie (21:30.648)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The easiest way to do it literally is that when people voice their opinion, you almost want to create healthy confrontation, right? And so how you do that is, you I used to have one of the best CEOs I ever worked for. He mastered this. He had come over, taken over the organization.

And what he realized very quickly is that the team got along to get along, right? So there was, know, and if anybody didn't agree, then instead of bringing it up in the middle of that executive meeting, they would then not say anything. And then the meeting's over and we know the type, right? And then they go to the water cooler and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, So it drove him crazy. And that was just a dysfunction of how the team was used to operate.

John Jantsch (22:09.814)

Yep, yep, yep.

Stephanie (22:14.532)

because the environment wasn't as such where you could actually voice the fact that you maybe didn't agree with, you know, your colleague or what have you. So one of the very first things that he did, and it's funny, I used to watch him do that, and then every company I've ever overseen, I've done the same thing, where he would try to get us to break that dysfunctional habit, right? And the way that he would do it is I would say he'd drop a grenade in the middle of the, get us all worked up, and then he'd leave.

Now we're all, you know, crazy and we've got to like work it out because we've got to come to some kind of consensus. and that's one way that leaders can do it at the beginning. It feels a little uncomfortable, both for the team and for the leader, because you're almost stirring up stuff. Right. But I'd much rather have a team that is like, you know, disagreeing in a respectful way, but at the end of the day can all get on board. And when we walk off the doors, we're all in unison. That's the goal.

right? But you really as leaders running companies or teams or divisions, the whole point is that you must hear all the different perspectives. That's how you're going to be get a competitive advantage out there. And so if you don't allow people to do that, then you know, the emperor has no clothes, right? We're all seeing they're going, yes, it's all it's a wonderful product. This new thing you've created. In the meantime, people are thinking this is this.

Sucks, right? This product never going to get off the ground and nobody feels like they're safe enough to be able to say it. So how you create safe psychological safety within a workplace is to literally get people comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations. And a lot of times as leaders, we actually have to start that because they won't do it naturally. So we kind of have to start it by saying, well, you know what, John, know that Stephanie said this, but you know, looks like the look on your face says that you disagree. Tell me more.

right? And then force you to say, well, the reason, you know, and you're going to, you're going to tip toe around it at the beginning. Well, it's not that I don't disagree. It's just, think there's another way to do it. Great. Well, tell me more. Right. And so you're going to keep forcing people to get to that point where they, can, you can watch them. They're feeling uncomfortable saying it. They're like, well, I just don't think her idea is good. Great. Well, tell me why. What's your idea? What can, how can we do this better? Right. So just forcing those conversations. Once people realize that when they do it and they say it,

John Jantsch (24:25.995)

Yes.

Stephanie (24:37.314)

and nothing bad happens to them, the next meeting they're more likely to do it. And then the next meeting they're more likely to do it. And that's how we change the culture.

John Jantsch (24:46.114)

And it's funny. I feel like when people are in a room together, we're a little more guarded about our body language. People are so easy to detect on Zoom, right? Because we think, nobody's actually here with me, you know, so I can roll my eyes and nobody will know. It's funny. Well, Stephanie, it was so great having you stop by the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. Where would you invite people to connect with you and find out more about how to lead people who are not like you?

Stephanie (24:56.514)

Yes, exactly. Right. So true.

Thank you.

Stephanie (25:14.588)

Absolutely. They are welcome to come onto my website, StephanieChung.com, or I'm on all the socials, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, at the Stephanie Chung. But StephanieChung.com is probably the quickest way to get to me and that. And yeah, for those of you that are leading out there, I hope this book will serve as a tool to help you have the best team so you can get the best results.

John Jantsch (25:36.13)

Well, again, thanks for stopping by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

Stephanie (25:40.58)

I love it. Thanks so much for having me, John. Bye bye now.

John Jantsch (25:43.532)

Ha.

 

 



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Saturday, December 7, 2024

Weekend Favs December 7th

Weekend Favs December 7th written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

  • TubeBuddy: A browser tool for YouTube creators to boost SEO, test thumbnails, and manage their channel like a pro.

  • NotebookLM: Google’s AI-powered note-taking assistant that summarizes, explains, and answers questions based on your docs.

  • Magnfi: A platform to easily create and share video testimonials, branded videos, and video emails to up your marketing game.

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Connect with me on Linkedin!

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.



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Thursday, December 5, 2024

Why Most Goals Fail (And How to Beat the Odds)

Why Most Goals Fail (And How to Beat the Odds) written by Jarret Redding read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Jon Acuff

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Jon Acuff, a New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including All It Takes Is A Goal. Known for his humor and actionable insights, Jon has addressed audiences worldwide, from Microsoft to FedEx, helping people unlock their potential and achieve lasting success.

Our conversation dives deep into the pitfalls of goal setting, the common reasons people abandon their goals, and the proven strategies to overcome these challenges. Whether you’re struggling to take the first step or sustain momentum, Jon’s practical tips will inspire you to set achievable goals and make steady progress.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • Break your goals into manageable steps using the “goal ladder” approach, which includes easy, middle, and guaranteed goals.
  • Use regret as a tool for learning and growth. Bad regret traps you in the past, while good regret motivates action and change.
  • Don’t get stuck waiting for a perfect, 20-year vision. Instead, focus on small actions that build momentum today.
  • Goals without dedicated time are just dreams. Assign specific time blocks to your goals for realistic progress.
  • Whether visual, auditory, or community-driven, identify and leverage the motivational tools that work best for you.
  • Balance big-picture aspirations with realistic, actionable steps to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
  •  Learn from setbacks and adapt. Each failure provides valuable insights for future success

Chapters:

  • [01:02] Who is Jon Acuff?
  • [03:36] Unique Approach to Goal Setting
  • [05:11] Understanding and Utilizing Regret for Positive Change
  • [07:07] Building Achievable Goals and Addressing Unequal Opportunities
  • [10:39] Balancing Aspirational and Realistic Goals
  • [14:58] Prioritizing Goals and Embracing Failure for Success
  • [18:56] Overcoming Fear of Success and Learning from Failure

 

More About Jon Acuff:

 

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by

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John Jantsch (00:01.277)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Jon Acuff. He's a New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including his most recent, All It Takes Is A Goal, the three-step plan to ditch regret and tap into your massive potential. Translated into over 20 languages, Acuff's work is both critically acclaimed and beloved by readers. He's a top leadership speaker named by Inc.

And he has addressed audiences worldwide, including FedEx, Microsoft, and Chick-fil-A, known for blending humor. With insight, he once opened for Dolly Parton at the Ryman Auditorium. So John, welcome to the show.

Jon Acuff (00:41.378)

Thanks for having me, John. Looking forward to it.

John Jantsch (00:43.089)

Should we blow little time hearing that story? It's in your bio. Yeah.

Jon Acuff (00:46.392)

The Dolly Parton story? Yeah. That happened like most of those things happen via my dentist, obviously. I go to what I say, the dentist to the stars and Jon Acuff. So famous people go there and also me. And he said one night, he was like, Hey, I've got a charity event at the Ryman. Would you be willing to open for Dolly Parton? And I said, I guess, guess I can do that. So I did 20 minutes of comedy, just straight comedy. The audience was dentists. had some.

John Jantsch (00:51.867)

ha ha ha!

John Jantsch (00:57.139)

Okay. All right. All right.

Jon Acuff (01:16.076)

killer mouth jokes that would not be funny if I told them to do right now. And I met Dolly, she did a 75 minute show that started at like 9 PM. She's unbelievable. She's everything you hope. You know, they always say never meet your heroes, but definitely meet Dolly Parton. I would have that photo of us on my driver's license if the DMV weren't such jerks.

John Jantsch (01:20.679)

Ha ha!

Wow.

Yeah.

John Jantsch (01:29.821)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (01:35.027)

Yeah, I a, I can't remember what it was. of it was a series of podcasts, but it was a serial where somehow the person met and ended up like doing all these interviews with Dolly Parton. He turned it into almost a book length podcast and it was so good. It was so good. Yeah.

Jon Acuff (01:49.804)

yeah, I heard it was great. Yeah, yeah. I don't know any. It's like, there's only three people in America. Nobody hates. It's like Dolly Denzel and Tom Hanks. think like it's hard to find somebody who's like that Tom Hanks. I hate his stupid face. I think they're universally loved.

John Jantsch (01:58.003)

Yeah. Well, I, my like opening for joke was, I actually used to talk about, the fact that Bill Cosby opened for me. Now, technically he was the closing speaker at an event and I happened to be the next morning's opening speaker, but

Jon Acuff (02:20.405)

yeah, that counts. I've counted month distance. Totally same arena, that counts.

John Jantsch (02:24.923)

However, that joke hasn't held up as well. I don't use it as much anymore. Yeah, I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. So let's just start with the obvious. Put you on like the defense right off the bat. Does the world need another book on gold setting? I mean, there are a few of them out there. So what, what in your mind said, yeah, I've got like something that hasn't been written before.

Jon Acuff (02:26.892)

Nah, dude, you're gonna wanna retire that one. You're gonna wanna, that one has, yeah, that one has a different feel in this current year.

Jon Acuff (02:43.64)

Sure.

Jon Acuff (02:48.824)

Yeah.

Jon Acuff (02:55.34)

That's a great question. well, habits had already been done. mean, James Clear wrote Atomic Habits. If you ever write a book about habits, God bless you that that one's been done. No, for me, what, what I felt like was missing in a lot of goal setting books was how easy the initial goals should be. I think our culture does a really big job of going go big or go home. And what happens is people usually go home. And so I was teaching goal setting techniques for

John Jantsch (02:58.991)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John Jantsch (03:14.481)

Mm-hmm.

John Jantsch (03:18.536)

Yeah, yeah.

Jon Acuff (03:24.642)

five or six years to real folks accomplishing real things and felt like that was a big part of what was missing is, okay, how do you, you know, how do you do that? And then the second thing I thought was missing was that a lot of goal setting books, their first step is come up with a 20 year vision for your life. Like, and we've misinterpreted Stephen Covey's begin with the end in mind into if you don't know the end, you can't begin. And so I kept seeing people.

John Jantsch (03:41.586)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (03:47.965)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jon Acuff (03:49.812)

run into what I call as a vision wall. And so I wanted to write a goal setting book that started from the past, meaning the first thing it did was say, what are the things that have lit you up over the last five years, the last 10 years? What are the clues? Because most people go, don't look backward. You're not going that direction. And we leave all this real learning about who we really are and what really fires us up. So I wanted to redeem your past to provide clues to your present and build your future.

John Jantsch (04:15.997)

So the word regret in the title is a tough word for some people. mean, there's certainly people look at it as a negative, but there's a school of thought. think Dan Pink actually had a book recently that kind of talks about, no, you learn from that. There's like good regret or there's no regret. I don't know which there is. So how do you help people distinguish between the, you you can learn from regret as opposed to just saying every mistake I made was regret.

Jon Acuff (04:20.312)

Yeah.

Jon Acuff (04:26.264)

Yeah, whole book on it.

Jon Acuff (04:42.616)

Yeah, I I guess for me, it always comes down to, well, so what did you do with it? What was the action that came out of that? And so I think a really simple test is bad regret is something that doesn't lead to change. It just leads to more bad regret. Like you get stuck in that loop. Good regret, think by nature leads to change. You go, I regretted the way I said that. I'm not going to say that kind of thing again. Here's what I'm going to practice to make sure I don't say that kind of thing again. Here's the, you know, I made this mistake.

And so, yeah, for me, that's what I meant. I think a lot of times with regret, we go back to our past and hope there's a single thing we can find that will change the rest of our lives. And we have this kind of misinterpreted version of counseling sometimes, like maybe there's something that happened to you at six. And once you unlock that, you'll be a completely different human going forward. And I think there is benefit to going, yeah, I had this challenge and I've, and I needed to process it, but

Sometimes where I see people get stuck with regret is it's like if you visited the same beach town every summer for 20 summers in a row, you'd know that beach town so well. And they visit the same story 20 years in a row and they keep giving it more power, more power, more power, more power versus going, yeah, that was a thing that happened. I can't change that. can change tomorrow. So I'm going to give more of my time, more of my energy to that. What does that look like? And so, yeah, I would say.

For me, it's how fast can I turn it into action for my future versus rumination about the past.

John Jantsch (06:12.499)

Can you, and we can talk about the individual ones, can you just kind of quickly, what's the three-step plan?

Jon Acuff (06:17.9)

Yeah. So the three steps are essentially you build what I would call as a goal ladder. Most people have a hard time with goals because they have a 12 foot tall ladder that only has two rungs. The top rung says final step and the bottom rung says first day. And the final step could be make a million dollars, lose 50 pounds. First day says, you know, get your LLC or buy sneakers. And there's a huge gap between there you go, I can't get to the top that way. And so the three steps are you build easy goals, you build middle goals and you build guaranteed goals.

essentially adding rungs to your entire ladder so that you have a rung every six inches so that it's a really simple ladder to climb. So those are the three steps.

John Jantsch (06:55.729)

One thing I think we ought to address, and I don't think a lot of gold setting books do, is that the fact of life is that there are people, I count myself as one, I had access to a lot of resources. I had privilege growing up and there are a lot of people that don't, I mean, that want to take themselves out of the situation they have and don't have some of the things that other people have. How do you talk about that person that's like,

And again, I know people can use that as an excuse because we've all seen people that have risen from abject poverty, you know, to like, incredible, know, achieving incredible goals. But how do you address that just when you're talking to the normal person out there that there are definitely differences in opportunities that people have.

Jon Acuff (07:42.936)

Yeah, I try to talk it to the individual person. I can't talk to global people. I can talk to individual readers. So where I see people get stuck there is if I go, man, I think you'd feel great if you walked around your neighborhood today. And then they push back and go, well, not everybody has a safe neighborhood. Okay, well, let's pull the thread on that. So are you saying until everybody has a safe neighborhood, you can't walk in your neighborhood? How will you know? Will the government email you and say, hey, we did it.

John Jantsch (07:48.563)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (08:06.323)

Yeah.

Jon Acuff (08:10.316)

We did it. Everybody has the same exact safe neighborhood. Now you can go take a walk. I had a friend, Chip Dodd, he's a PhD say, we suffer from global co-dependence. When you say not everybody had the same opportunity, you're saying I'm dependent on them having the same opportunity before I changed my life. So in a situation like that, I'd say to somebody, hey, I think this could be beneficial. And if they said, well, I don't have those same opportunities, I would say, well, which ones do you have? Let's talk about you as an individual. If they said,

Hey, John, there's a lot of people that can't do that. I'd go, well, what are their names? And more than likely they go, well, I don't really know any. just know that like the world and I'll go, okay, well, like, is it a friend? Let's talk about your, your friend doesn't have that opportunity. Let's help them fix their specific problem. I just think that, yeah, life is certainly like, life is certainly not equal. but I think it comes down to going, what can you do with what you have versus like, I don't like.

Take for me, for instance, I was never going to be in the NBA. I'm at my height at five seven. There's five people in the history of the NBA that have played at my height. Like, so I can't go like, man, it's, it's crazy that Steph Curry gets to play in the NBA and I don't like, didn't get the same opportunities. Like yeah, height wasn't one of my opportunities. And in some ways it encouraged me to develop a sense of humor because I wasn't going to be the tall, confident kid in the seventh grader because I was not tall and confident. So I thought.

And I've had to develop a little bit of survival skills in my middle school and maybe personality be one of them. So I always try to get it back to the individual because I think there are people, know, everybody gets a different set of opportunities and it depends on what you do with them.

John Jantsch (09:52.755)

So you started talking about the, one of the challenges people have is that they set these impossible goals for, or they think, you know, that's not big enough. How do you kind of keep people keep a perspective on that tension? You know, that like what's aspirational, what would put, mean, because a goal should push you a little bit probably, right? But also some people, you know, set something so big that they can't take the first step.

Jon Acuff (10:13.282)

Yeah. Yeah.

Jon Acuff (10:21.346)

Yeah. So you do need both. like, you need the aspiration to get you started. You need the small goal to keep you going. So nobody gets excited. know, John, I know, and you know, if somebody wants to write a 50,000 word book, the first thing they have to do is write the first 100 words and the next 200 words. But that's so boring. If you say to somebody, you're going to get to write a hundred whole words, that doesn't get anybody to the desk. You want to paint for them this big picture of like,

The book is on a shelf, you're holding it in your hand. It's been translated into Italian. You're at a book signing. You need the aspiration to be inspired, but then you have to break it down at the daily steps. So it's really a dance of both in that sense. And so for me, one of the fastest ways to do that is to deal in terms of time. Like I get to time so fast with people. Most people's goal is divorce from their calendar and you never accomplish a goal if that's how you're living. And so one of the things I do, which is not

necessarily fun right out of the gate is if somebody's serious about a goal, go, all right, let's do a quick time gap analysis. Like let's add up the hours that your new goal is going to take. And most people that read my types of books and listen to your podcast have more goals than they need. The average person I did a study had 22.8 goals. Your listeners feel overwhelmed because they should feel overwhelmed. They're juggling 22 balls at a time. So I'll go, let's put an hour with it. And they'll usually go, okay, it's 22 hours of goals. And I go, okay, how many hours of free time do you have in your week?

John Jantsch (11:41.651)

Yes.

Jon Acuff (11:49.314)

this week and then go free time. What? I'm very busy. I have zero. Okay. You have a new goal system that costs 22 hours. You have a calendar that accepts zero hours. You're just going to get into a fight constantly. So I'll always try to get them to like make friends with reality. The problem is with goals is you dream and then you plan and dreaming is based on optimism and planning is based on realism. And a lot of people have a hard time making that transition. And so I try to help them ease that transition.

from I've got a big, crazy, amazing goal. I dreamed with unfettered limitations and now I want to actually bring it into the real world. How do I do that in a way that is still encouraging? But it also does stretch me. And so that's always, it's definitely a dance and it's why most goals fail. 92 % of all new year's resolutions according to the University of Scranton fail. Strava did a study of 800 million athletic activities. Biggest fitness tracking up in the world.

John Jantsch (12:26.611)

Okay.

Jon Acuff (12:46.604)

The biggest drop off day they saw was the second Friday in January. So let's not, let's not sugar coat that like, if you have a goal, it magically happens. It doesn't, but man, is it worth it? Like, man, is it worth it?

John Jantsch (12:49.203)

you

John Jantsch (12:53.321)

Yeah,

John Jantsch (12:58.851)

You know, one of the things that I suspect most people, most listeners have, can think back in their life and have seen is that like, I know that if I make something a priority, it's going to happen. If I wish that something happens, it's probably not, I'll fill up my calendar with other stuff. But when, you know, the one everybody always relates to is, know, on April 14th, if I haven't filed my taxes, all of sudden I got time to figure that out. Right?

Jon Acuff (13:26.68)

Yeah, yeah, I'm motivated, I'm motivated, yeah.

John Jantsch (13:28.115)

Right. And, and I think that that's true. Probably that, that idea of getting the right, like making something a real priority is the only way you're going to make it happen.

Jon Acuff (13:39.106)

Yeah, I mean, and you have to figure out what that means to you. Some people are people motivated. So some people are really helped when they have another person who's holding their feet to the fire. Yeah. And you go, okay, great. Some people are, you know, visually motivated. They need to do that exercise where they cut out the pictures from the magazine and they can envision it. Some of them are, you know, audio motivated where they, they need the Eminem song kicking them off at the gym and they're going to lose themselves.

So it's really about figuring out what are the tools you need to get it done? Like what is your kind of set of tools? And for me, I throw thousands of tools at my goals. Like I really, you know, I've, now written 10 books. Like this year I will have run 650 miles and walked 450 miles. I read a hundred books a year and there's people that'll go, man, that's a lot.

That feels like a lot. always think, yeah, I want a lot out of life. It is a lot. Like I want a whole, I want to make a lot of money and help a lot of people and, and run a lot of miles, but I just use a lot of tools that make that easy and fun. And I'm always figuring that out and I'm always dialing that in. And you've seen the same thing. Like if you spend time with successful people, they're never accidental. Like nothing in life gets awesome accidentally. I've never met somebody who accidentally got in shape.

John Jantsch (14:51.378)

Yeah.

Jon Acuff (14:56.898)

who said, yeah, I was just binge watching Netflix. Next thing you knew, I was doing burpees in the living room. I don't even remember getting off the couch. I've never met somebody who had an awesome marriage accidentally or had an awesome business accidentally. They're always intentional and they're very intentional about how they stay motivated to actually commit to the goal.

John Jantsch (15:16.467)

Yeah. And I think another thing is, you know, when you see that person, that you think, wow, look at the level of success, know, you should go back and listen to my first podcast, go back and listen to my first speech, go back and read my first article I wrote.

Jon Acuff (15:28.63)

yeah, dude. Yeah. Brutal. Brutal. My wife still like, so I've been public speaking for probably 15, 16 years now. My wife still doesn't really enjoy to go to my events because she still has PTSD from my first couple of events. She would come and sit there and just watch me. Like it was a suffer fest for me and the audience. And that's part of it. And so...

That's the other thing is that we often don't get to see that process. And I think that's what people relate to with you is that you share, you share the process. Like entrepreneurs that share the process, are honest and vulnerable and go, yeah, this thing blew it. Like I wrote a book once and the, was, this was a literary magazine that reviewed it. And their last sentence was, you can essentially, you can tell John's passionate, but ultimately this reads like a pamphlet that got stretched into a book.

That's every writer's nightmare that like somebody goes, this could have been a pamphlet. And, but at the same time, I'm like, what's the trade-off that I wouldn't have done that? Like, and I didn't get a book out and then think about, think about, okay, if your first episode stinks, what's the trade-off? You, you want the episodes to get worse? Of course not. You want to look back and go, wow, I've gotten better. Like that's what you want. And so if you remember that you're willing to do the work of being like, yeah, dude, that one was rough.

Or like, wow, the crowd didn't connect on that. like, I wrote that book and it just did not, I've written books that didn't sell and it's a public failure. And that's not, that's not fun, but that's part of writing a book that does sell.

John Jantsch (17:04.487)

Yes, absolutely. Well, I've read research on, and this isn't everybody, but there's certainly people out there that are actually afraid of success. It's like, what's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my family if I succeed? mean, how do you get people kind of past that barrier if it exists?

Jon Acuff (17:14.795)

yeah.

Jon Acuff (17:23.17)

What depends on what, you know, the cause of their, so it seems like when it comes to a fear of success, there's like, there's a couple versions of it. There's, I can't be more successful than what I grew up with is an acceptable amount of success. So I can't make more money than my dad. I can't make more money than the town I grew up in. there's also, if I get successful, life will get harder and more complicated. So that is what I call Mo Money Mo Problem Syndrome. The idea that if I make more money, life's going to get harder and more stressful.

John Jantsch (17:36.595)

Yeah, right, right, right, Yep.

Jon Acuff (17:52.664)

But I'll tell you, I've had no money before and it didn't make life easier. It didn't make the problems simpler. or it's, know, okay, if I get successful, people expect me to be successful every time. Some people like to surprise people. They're afraid to have expectations. So they'd rather you have no expectations and they show up and then they exceed them. So it depends on which variety of that you have.

John Jantsch (17:57.075)

You're right. Yep. Right.

Jon Acuff (18:17.868)

But for me, it's, go, you're going to have to raise your level of what's an acceptable amount of success. And one of the ways you do that is in community. So you and I, where we connected was a community of very successful authors. And I can't speak for your level of success. I was not the most successful person that room by a long shot. And, but being around them, I go, wow. This person, that's how they did it. They seem like they really love their family. They seem like their life is really fun and they have a level of success.

that I thought came with a lot of complications or maybe like I have this broken soundtrack that says, if you get that successful, you never see your kids and you end up, you don't really even know your wife. And this guy seems to love his wife and he seems to love his kids. And wow, that breaks my framework. And so now just being around those people challenges me to go, I'm going to raise my own personal definition of what's an okay amount of success, you know, and see what that looks like. But the other thing for me with that is I'm really deliberate about

John Jantsch (19:01.512)

Yeah.

Jon Acuff (19:14.782)

studying and working with people who have sustainable long-term success. So I'm no longer impressed by the person that has a YouTube channel that's hot for a year or one book that did well. I'm curious about the guy who's 40 years into his career, the woman who's 30 years into her career, who has a family that loves her, has a spouse that loves them, has a business that's healthy, they're in moderate health shape. And I go, how did they do that?

John Jantsch (19:24.955)

Yes.

Jon Acuff (19:40.492)

Like how have they not blown it up? How have they not? Cause there's plenty of examples of leaders who have. And so I treat it pretty serious about how do you, how do you enjoy success and how do you make success not change you?

John Jantsch (19:52.979)

All right. Final question. I'm guessing I could be wrong. There'd be hard to write a book like this, or at least shape the ideas of a book with this like this that you hadn't experienced a significant goal that you failed to achieve.

Jon Acuff (20:09.428)

yeah, yeah, so I mean...

John Jantsch (20:10.349)

So do share maybe how some of that shaped this book.

Jon Acuff (20:15.02)

Yeah. mean, you could say, I mean, think about this. Like I spent three years working with Dave Ramsey and that was a really amazing experience. And then I ended up starting my own company, which was not successful for a period of time. So there were a lot of people, friends who would say, wow, what you blew it. You were on the radio with 10 million radio listeners. And then the next day you had zero radio listeners. My wife said to me, she said, Hey,

I think it's going to be hard for you to handle that your next book won't sell like your last book because you don't have 10 million radio listeners to talk to about it. And that was a reality. for me, you know, that was a big, that was a big, a big moment to go, wow, I have to start over. Like I started at the bottom of a lot of ladders, in that moment where, you know, so that was definitely one that I would say, okay.

John Jantsch (20:49.363)

Thanks.

Jon Acuff (21:09.162)

I had to start over in that moment, starting my own business in that moment. It's going to speak to 80 people in a Ramada in January in Effingham, Illinois, when I had been on stage to 10,000 people three months before. I don't know anybody in the world that would go, this is working. I'm doing it. This is the trajectory. That's definitely one of them. Then there's been too many books. There's books I've written that just...

didn't find the sales market. Like one of my books, Do Over, which is about career transition, it just had the wrong title. And I came up with the title. That's no, like I don't, I'm not pointing a single finger that I came up with that title. Seth Godin said it was the greatest career book ever written. That was his endorsement. It's the best endorsement I've ever received and it didn't sell well. And the reason why, in my opinion, is the phrase do over was so negative to so many people. I saw it as positive.

John Jantsch (21:46.939)

Mm-hmm.

Jon Acuff (22:07.328)

I saw it as a phoenix rising from the ashes, but nobody wanted to give anyone that book. Cause you would never say to a husband, Hey, it's a book about failures. It's called do-overs made me think of you. Here you go. But like, no one would give that book and dude, we changed the subtitle from the hardcover to the paperback. Like we did everything and it just didn't work. And, and I worked as hard as I could on that. I wrote the best book I could. got, you know,

John Jantsch (22:07.419)

Mm-hmm. Right, right, right, right.

John Jantsch (22:15.922)

Yeah.

John Jantsch (22:24.509)

Huh. Wow.

Jon Acuff (22:34.616)

great feedback from other writers like Seth Godin, but the titling, the way I positioned it, and again, it was me. Like I would love to blame somebody else. It was a guy named Jon Acuff that did that. And so yeah, that was definitely a humbling one.

John Jantsch (22:43.869)

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, John, I appreciate you taking a few moments to stop by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Where would you invite people to connect with you, find out more about your work and your books?

Jon Acuff (22:58.894)

Sure. If you like podcasts, I have a podcast called All It Takes is a Goal, where I interview folks about the goals they're working on. And then I read all my audio books. So if you're a listener to audio, I add a ton of bonus content. If you ever write your own book and get to record the audio, add a bunch of bonus content because it's really fun. So you can check out my two most recent All It Takes is a Goal and Soundtracks, which is about mindset. And then I'm just Jon Acuff everywhere online.

John Jantsch (23:25.189)

Awesome. Well, again, appreciate you taking a moment to stop by and hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road, John.

Jon Acuff (23:31.384)

Yeah, thanks. Great seeing you again, John.

 

 



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Wednesday, December 4, 2024

5 Marketing Trends That Will Disrupt 2025 (And How to Stay Ahead)

5 Marketing Trends That Will Disrupt 2025 (And How to Stay Ahead) written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I discuss the marketing landscape heading into 2025.

With years of experience helping businesses grow through strategic marketing approaches, I reviewed five transformative trends poised to disrupt how marketers, agencies, and organizations connect with audiences in 2025. These trends highlight the increasing role of AI, hyper-personalization, decentralized communities, and authenticity in crafting impactful strategies.

I shared actionable insights on leveraging generative AI, exploring platforms like Reddit and Bluesky, and embracing customer-centric values to build trust and loyalty. Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a marketing agency, these predictions offer a roadmap for navigating the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem in 2025.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • Hyper-Personalization Is the New Standard
    Generative AI is making one-to-one marketing at scale more accessible. Tools like CRM platforms combined with customer data platforms allow businesses to tailor campaigns down to the individual level. From personalized newsletters to dynamic websites, hyper-personalization is no longer optional—it’s what customers expect.
  • Decentralized Communities Are Reshaping Consumer Behavior
    Platforms like Reddit, Discord, and Bluesky are becoming hubs for authentic, ad-free conversations. Consumers are gravitating away from traditional social networks, forcing marketers to establish meaningful presences in these smaller, values-driven communities.
  • Generative AI Revolutionizes Creative Production
    AI tools like DALL·E, Pictory, and Canva’s Firefly are streamlining content creation, making high-quality graphics and videos faster and more cost-effective to produce. While these tools aren’t perfect yet, their potential to democratize creative production will reshape how brands engage visually with their audiences.
  • AI-Driven Marketing Orchestration Is Automating the Complex
    AI is emerging as the central hub for campaign management and automation. From smarter workflows to enhanced analytics, platforms like HubSpot and Google Analytics are transforming how businesses orchestrate their marketing efforts, enabling seamless touchpoints and increased efficiency.
  • Brand Marketing Is Key to Trust and Loyalty
    In an era of increasing transparency and shifting consumer values, brand authenticity is paramount. Differentiation through trust-building and value alignment is becoming the ultimate competitive edge as traditional lead-generation methods wane.

Chapters

  • [00:48] Hyper-Personalization Powered by Generative AI
  • [02:45] Decentralized Communities and the Shift Away from Traditional Social Media
  • [04:43] Generative AI-Led Creative Production
  • [07:50] AI-Driven Marketing Orchestration
  • [09:42] Brand Marketing as the New Standard
  • [11:14] AI Transparency and Consumer Trust
  • [13:00] Closing Thoughts & Actionable Advice for 2025

More About John Jantsch

 

John Jantsch (00:00.898)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and guess what? It's just me, no guests today. I'm doing a solo show. know, 2024 is getting ready to wrap up, depending upon when you're listening to this. So I thought I would do my predictions for marketing disruption in 2025. And no shock, I'm going to actually give you five of them, but no shock, a lot of them have to do with AI.

That's just where we are at this point in time. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what I think marketers, marketing consultants, marketing agencies, you as a marketer for your organization need to be aware of. Number one, I'm calling this hyper personalization powered by generative AI. There are a heck of a lot of tools out there now that are helping us get better at segmenting rather than just like market segments, but actually all the way down to

individual segments. you know, AI is going to give us the ability to create one-to-one campaigns really at scale. And I think that it's going to be a huge differentiator because customers, I think you're just going to demand, you know, once the market starts doing things and people start experiencing them, we start demanding, hey, I want that experience. And I think generic messaging is really going to make you fall

So you're going to need to adopt some AI tools that offer or help you offer this idea of hyper personalization. know, frankly, a lot of the CRM tools, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, you know, allow you to personalize email campaigns. And you combine that with a segmenting tool, a customer data platform will really then allow you to go deeper and deeper, do that kind of almost one-on-one personalization.

start small. You don't have to go crazy. But I think you need to start really businesses at all levels need to start thinking that way. You know, beyond the CRM or the marketing platforms to really getting into start saying, okay, our newsletter, could we, is there, do we have the ability to start sending instead of one newsletter that everybody gets a hundred newsletters that really understand who they're sending to.

John Jantsch (02:28.104)

and replace content. That's what we're going to start seeing. You know, eventually we'll start seeing websites. You you revisit our website and dependent upon what I know about you or dependent upon, you know, the pages you look at, you might actually start seeing personalized content. That's the world that I think is coming. It's actually it's happening. We just don't even realize it if people are doing it well. All right. Number two, decentralized communities on places like

Reddit and of course everybody's talking about Blue Sky right now as a new one. I think that you are going to see consumers moving to some of these platforms that, you know, they're a little ad-like experiences. I think people are getting really distrust with the traditional social networks that have become politicized and have been just...

cramming ads down our throats and selling data and whatnot. So I think you're just going to see people, consumers moving to some of these new platforms. So consequently, you're going to see brands moving to them. And I think this idea of nurturing smaller communities is probably going to be something that, that starts happening again, starting small, set up, you know, at least a presence on, you know, places like Reddit, blue sky. I don't know if you've done a search on Google lately, but

you know, we're starting to see all kinds of Reddit content come into the search results. so participating in at least understanding what's going on in those places, I think is going to matter. And I'm not even talking about some of, you know, those are public places, but, you know, some of the private, like if you don't belong to a Discord community, you know, it's not being surfaced in search and you wouldn't know what's going on there. So I think you're going to see a lot more of that.

I'm using tools like BuzzSumo and BrandWatch, you know, to really monitor discussions that are happening in some of these places, I think is, know, whether it's your brand or it's related to the products and services that you sell. think understanding how and where people are having these conversations and the fact that they are going to be in a lot of places that maybe you're not today. And I'm not necessarily suggesting this idea that

John Jantsch (04:47.866)

you need to sign up for every new thing that comes along. I think it's more understanding the trend that consumers are moving to some of those and moving away from really listening to a lot of the traditional platforms. All right, another one with AI directly in the title number three, generative AI led creative production. Everybody talks about content.

And certainly we're getting there to where content production using these AI tools has become very effective. So the next, I think the next obvious thing is the creative assets. So make them faster, cheaper, more accessible. It really levels the playing field, I think, to be able to have graphics, to be able to create videos. And I think...

I think it's going to, we are going to continue. could make this on an entire trend when I'm talking about agencies, traditional agencies, people who are doing tactics the same way, I think do risk some obsolescence. Agencies are not going to be replaced, but ones that are using traditional tactics and selling traditional tactics really run that risk. Our job, I think is going to be strategy. It's going to be orchestrating.

using the rich set of tools that are available to us. So I think that that's going to happen. You're going to see more and more of it. Things like Dolly and Pictory that are allowing us to create video and image assets. All of the design folks, the Adobe's of the world are going to get into this. Canva is actually adding. It's a great tool to create for creative production.

being able to automate things across some of these platforms. So again, from the tools, start looking at Pictory AI and Dolly and Mid Journey. Adobe's entry right now is called Firefly. These are some of the things that I think that we really need to understand, but they're certainly disrupting.

John Jantsch (07:00.078)

you know, the industries as well. I would say, you know, where we are at the close of 2024 going into 2025, these tools are not the they're not ready for prime time in terms of saying, I'll just create all my images and all my illustrations, all my video. I'll just have avatars, you know, creating those. mean, I think we're a long way from people understanding how the market's going to respond to those. And certainly you've all seen the kind of oddities that can be created, you know, using a dolly.

So we're not there yet necessarily, but we're moving there rapidly and certainly in 2025 it's only going to continue.

This next trend, number four, I'm calling AI-driven marketing orchestration.

I think AI in a lot of ways is going to become the central hub for certainly for campaign management. I think we can make a case for a lot of things in operations and finance. You know, we're all really going to be disrupted in terms of how we do things. So you could actually say, you know, I talked about marketing orchestration, but you could really talk a lot about business orchestration as well. But there's no question that

that a lot of the campaigns, some of the automation, some of the integrations and things that we do today are going to be replaced. So you're seeing many, many tools, HubSpot, know, go high level. You know, they're building a lot of AI into, you know, email and, and add workflows. Even, you know, things like Google analytics are, you know, you're going to start seeing people analyzing for insights. mean, a lot of, a lot of times just reports of like,

John Jantsch (08:41.89)

Here's the data, make some sense of it. These tools are very, very good at doing that. So think you're going to see really full scale AI driven automation and really something that's going to allow us to automate a lot of the touch points seamlessly. So that's something that I think we, it's not a overnight buy one tool, get rich, flip the switch. It is just something that piece by piece.

S O P by S O P campaign by campaign, you're going to start seeing people integrating these more effectively. All right. Now I'm going to come full circle because I think a lot of, you know, people look at these AI tools and they're, they're, they really look at them as, this is going to replace humans and this is a girl place our need to do, to do marketing or to have marketers in general. And I think to me, what it's going to do is it's going to,

No question it's going to impact some of the things that were done by hand. Some of the inefficiencies is going to allow people to actually deliver more value, maybe more profitably if you understand how to employ these. And number five to me is actually the piece that brings this together. I think brand marketing, I call it as the new standard. Branding, brand marketing has always been important.

But I think in turn, when it comes to customer growth and to generating leads, a lot of people have gotten away from that idea because heck, if you could figure out SEO, you could get cheap leads. If you could figure out the ad platforms and certainly they would sell you all their data, you could get cheap leads. And I think that's going away. That's one of the things that generative AI is making go away. A lot of the easy search, a lot of the ad platforms are going to not being able to sell their third party data. And so this differentiation through brand marketing is,

I mean, it was so important, frankly, before we actually even had a lot of the online and digital channels that exist today. And I think we're going back there to some degree that I think consumers are really going to be much more effective in aligning their values with the brand's values. And the fact of the matter is, I say this all the time.

John Jantsch (11:03.778)

No matter how much we talk about all these platforms and tools and technology changing, the thing that continues to change rapidly is how people get to choose to buy. mean, so much of the power, if you will, in the equation has shifted to the buyer because they could find out so much more information. They can actually be well down their journey to making a purchase decision before we even know they're out there. so brands that really want to differentiate today,

are going to focus on trust or increasing trust, increasing loyalty. you're going to have continued regulatory scrutiny. I think it's going to continue to drive some of that. and I think that we have to, as businesses, you know, really focus on aligning campaigns with authentic brand values. and, and really, you know, again, our ideal customer, you know, wants to see, and I think has the ability now to choose.

to work with companies that really do communicate their values. In terms of how do you go there, one of the things you might do is just audit everything you're doing. mean, are you in alignment with your brand standards and your values? Are you putting out messages out there that don't make sense necessarily to the market that you're trying to attract? And frankly,

One of things we have to do is continue to monitor these things because consumers are going to become very wary of AI produced content, AI produced visuals, AI all the way to the level of AI produced video that can replicate somebody so thoroughly that it's very, very difficult to tell if that's the real person or if that is an AI video. And I think a lot of consumers are going to want to know.

They're going to want that transparency in addition to that value alignment. those are things that I think we really are going to have to be very wary of.

John Jantsch (13:09.292)

I think we have the opportunity though to lead. And whether it's in our business or it's in, if we are an agency working with clients, I think we do have the ability to teach and the lead. When there are new tools, I've talked about AI extensively in this, when there are new tools, new technologies, there's going to be a lot of misinformation. There's going to be a lot of hype. There's going to be a lot of people telling you all you need is AI to get rich. mean, every single day you're going to be hearing those kinds of messages. And I think that.

It's really, I think one of the things that we have to do is cut through the clutter. mean, that's really always been what I've tried to do when I see a new technology. The first thing I want to know is can this help me do my job better? Can this actually help me provide more value for my customers? And if the answer is yes, I want to explore it. If the answer is no, it's just a new thing. It's everybody's talking about it, you know, in ways that don't make sense. I mean, I don't really care about that.

But I think that's how you can start breaking these new technologies down in very practical ways. All right, that's all I have for today. Hopefully you find some interest in this as you charge into 2025 or if you're listening to this in 2025, certainly some things to consider. Love to hear feedback. Feel free to send me messages. It's just John at ductapemarketing.com. And of course we love that feedback. Well, we really love five stars actually.

On, on Apple or Spotify or wherever you choose to listen. All right. Take care. Appreciate it. Well, hopefully we'll see you one of these days out there on the road.

 

 



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Monday, December 2, 2024

Duct Tape Marketing’s Next Chapter: Leadership Transition Announcement

Duct Tape Marketing’s Next Chapter: Leadership Transition Announcement written by Jordan E read more at Duct Tape Marketing

At Duct Tape Marketing, we’ve always believed in the power of consistency, clarity, and continuous evolution—both in the marketing systems we create and how we grow as an organization. Today, we’re excited to share an important update about our leadership team and the future of Duct Tape Marketing.

After more than two decades as the founder and CEO of Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch is transitioning to the role of Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). In this role, he will focus on thought leadership, product development, and driving innovation across our programs and offerings.

Many of you know Sara Nay, who is stepping into the role of CEO. Sara has been with Duct Tape Marketing since 2010 and has been instrumental in our organization's growth and success. From expanding the reach of our Fractional CMO methodology to leading the development of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, Sara has consistently demonstrated her passion for helping small businesses and marketing consultants thrive.

Why This Transition Matters

This leadership change is an exciting next step for Duct Tape Marketing. It aligns with our mission to empower small businesses and marketing consultants with practical, effective systems. Sara brings a deep understanding of our community and our methods and a clear vision for building on the foundation we’ve created together.

Meanwhile, John’s new role as CIO will allow him to focus on what he does best: exploring innovative strategies and developing resources that help our clients and certified consultants succeed in an ever-changing marketing landscape.

What Stays the Same

While leadership roles may shift, our commitment to our mission and community remains steadfast.

  • The Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network: With over 400 agencies certified in our Fractional CMO and Certified Marketing Manager programs, the network will continue to be at the heart of our work. We remain committed to supporting and growing this incredible group of marketing professionals.

  • Practical Marketing Systems: Our proven, effective, and actionable marketing strategies will continue to drive results for the small businesses with which our agency has the good fortune to work.

  • Ongoing Innovation: Under John’s guidance as CIO, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, ensuring we remain a leader in small business marketing.

John and Sara Leadership Change

Looking Ahead

As Sara takes the reins as CEO, her focus will be on maintaining the consistency and clarity you’ve come to expect from Duct Tape Marketing while driving growth and creating new opportunities to serve our community. With John’s continued involvement as Chief Innovation Officer, we’re excited to see how the next chapter unfolds.

This transition isn’t just about change—it’s about evolution. It’s about ensuring that Duct Tape Marketing remains as strong, innovative, and impactful as ever.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us. We’re grateful for your trust, support, and partnership and are excited to continue helping small businesses and marketing professionals succeed.


Here’s to the bright future ahead,

The Duct Tape Marketing Team


For inquires please send us a note here. 



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Weekend Favs November 30th

Weekend Favs November 30th written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one I took on the road.

  • Taskade is an AI-powered productivity platform that enhances team collaboration through features like task management, mind mapping, and custom AI agents. It offers tools for automating workflows and creating AI-driven content, aiming to streamline project management and boost efficiency.
  • QuickCreator is an AI content marketing platform designed to simplify the creation of SEO-optimized blogs and websites. It provides an intuitive editor, free hosting, and AI-driven writing assistance to help users produce high-quality content efficiently.
  • Lavender is an AI email assistant that helps sales teams craft effective emails to increase reply rates and generate more leads. It offers real-time coaching, personalization suggestions, and performance analytics to enhance email communication.

These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Connect with me on Linkedin!

If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.



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