2026-01-07

 Okay, let's get started. How meetings can build or break your brand? And this is an interesting topic. I wrote article about it today. I put it on my newsletter. It's on my blog. Uh, it's on my newsletter blog. on the website, and, uh, it is important. Here's the thing. Meetings are mostly a waste of time. What a meeting needs to be is when you need a decision. Otherwise, you need to let people do their job. If you've given them a job and they are doing it, great. If they need help, they should reach out to you if they are just able to complete the work, let them go, let them do it. I don't. I have not been able to capture the idea in my mind that. Time is the most important constraint. Meetings are just a scheduler of getting people together to talk about things. This morning I canceled the meeting because we have another meeting scheduled to take the next action. So I sent a note today that said, Any objection to canceling this? We already have another meeting scheduled to do to accomplish the work. Do we need to talk about anything else? The team now understands, no, we don't need to sit and just meet just to talk because talking is not the most important part, making sure we get stuff done. That's the important part. All right, let's go to some hands. Let's go to Patricia, and then we'll bring up Melrose. If you're interested, if you want to talk about how meetings happening, hey, Mav, thanks for joining Crypto, Alex. and others. Say hi, come up, grab the mic. Practice your public speaking. This is free. I don't bite. I'm not going to yell at you. If you want advice, I'll give it to you. But if not, this is an unbelievably awesome opportunity for you to Shake and feel queasy and do the thing and yet still talk in front of people. Uh, it's free. It doesn't matter, and I'm not going to bite you. So, hey Patricia, how are you today? I'm doing well, Andy. I really am. Um, when I saw this, how meetings can build or break your brand, the 1st thing I went to was a... email that I'm currently writing, that if I had my, if I had my way, it would be a meeting. But it's an email. Uh, and... I'm trying to explain to a gentleman who is in the PR department, actually, is the PR department. Let's be honest. For a charity that I work with, he, he, for the first time, has asked to know more about what I do and how I see myself involved with the charity. Never mind that I've been involved with the cherry for 11 years. He just finally is asking the questions. And I'm actually nervous putting it on people. I feel like I do better face to face. Yep. True. Everybody feels that way. Let me ask you a question. Do you know why do you know why he's asking? Because that's really important. Why is he asking me the question? Is it just a checkbox that he has to do for the president? Is it... Is it he's trying to genuinely find out? Is he genuinely just trying to find out who's who in the zoo? Or is it something more? I think that may be it. I think he finally realizes, I'm not going away, so I might as well, he might as well find out who's who in this to do. Um... Well, how many other people are in the same kind of helping mode that you are? You're the only one? I don't know. I think I may be the only one coming from the United States, who is consistently helping. Okay. You know, so I think, I think he's trying to figure out who's who in this section of the zoo. Right. You know, you know the, um... You know, you know the old phrase, um, Right? I didn't say that she stole the money. Right? Depending on which word you emphasize, it means something totally different. I didn't say she stole the money. I didn't. Say she sold the money. I didn't say she stole the money. I didn't say she stole money. I didn't say she stole the money. I didn't say she stole the money. I didn't say she stole the money. Each one of them implies something different, right? And so when you're reading an email, sometimes you need a meeting, right? Because see, here's the thing. How can meetings build or break your brand? What's his brand to you? He is, he is the head of the PR department of the charity that I am most closely, um, associated with, amongst my readers, he is also the head of the PR department, of the chair, that I am the most fond of. Right? Like, when I go... But those are, but those are, you just described his role. I'm wondering if you know, Him and how he operates, what he does, what his motivation is, why he's not why he does things like that. Not very well. This gentleman has kept his cards very close to the vest for several years. British? British, yes. Well, everybody does it. Every Brit does that. That's just normal. But there are ways to find out more. And maybe. Maybe a quick phone call is helpful. You can also ask, um, you can also send kind of a pre-email before you answer. Mm-hmm. And ask him something like, Just, uh, I love this charity. Just asking a question to make sure I get you the right information. Are you looking for what we're doing, what the purpose is, how we're getting there? Maybe even ask something that's a little bit off kilter and wrong so that he will correct you. And then, when they correct you, that's the truth. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense? I mean, I mean, it makes perfect sense, considering this is the 1st time he's gotten. Paris, let's say. Um, are we gonna be like, for me to want to know exactly what it is he wants to know. Right, but don't ask it that way. Because they'll, because they'll just give you the, the, the generic, Oh, whatever's fine. I just I just want to know something. Oh, yeah, you know. Fine, but maybe... It's much better to ask something that is wrong and be corrected to get the truth. That it is. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. Yes, because because if he's caught up in, all of a sudden, correcting me... They never get caught up in correcting you. They just correct you. Well, okay. If he's correcting me, then he is not... filtering as much. Exactly. He just tells me what he wants. Okay. Right. Yes. Here's here is a uh, here is a dirty little secret of AI in advertising. We, none of us are immune. Because we are humans. We have a brain, and that brain operates like a human brain, and we are susceptible to advertising and marketing. Period. We not immune to it. We can't just go, oh, heard that, not gonna do it. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no. Listen. If, if you really, really dislike, like right now in the United States, I hope this doesn't happen to everyone in the world. But there is a massive campaign to just call people and say, your personal loan is available for this much money. Like, I didn't even ask for a personal one. What are you talking about? I get 25 phone calls a day. Eventually, I think, I could use an extra X number of dollars because I could do this stuff with it. Wonder what their rate is. I'm not immune to it. If you just tell people the same thing. 100, 200, 300, 500 times, they're going to, they're going to start to believe 2 things about you. Number one, you're persistent. Number two, you're selling whatever that thing is you've told them about a 100 times. They may never need it, but they know for sure that's exactly what you do. That's branding. So how do meetings build your brand? If you're consistent talking about the stuff you want to do or the what stuff you want or how you want to get it done, your brand will become obvious. If you wishy-washy and you, you, take the, I can cook anything approach to the kitchen instead of I'm really good at. Eggs for what, whatever, dumb example. If you're really good at eggs and you can cook them 5 or 6 or 10 or 20 or 100 ways and they're really good every time. You'll be known as that guy that can make eggs in a breakfast. Oh man. Have him make some eggs for you. They are great. Yeah. Not good or bad. Just the brand, right? The brand is what people say, what other people say about you. Yeah, I mean, I think what makes me nervous about this other than the fact that, you know, I would I feel like I would do better face to face. is that what I want him to realize in what, what I don't understand why he doesn't already know, is that, you know, I have been on the outer circles of this for 15 years, they know they can reach out to me. Wait, wait, wait. You're falling into a trap. Here's here's the trap. Okay. Nobody knows. You just said twice in a row. Well, they know that they know, they should know, but no, they don't know. Don't ever assume. People know. Ever. People who you've worked with your whole entire life, they still don't know. Especially men, let's just be honest. You, okay, I will tell a true story. My niece got married to a really nice guy, okay? And I've known him for 8 years. Eight years before they got married. I've known him 10 years now. I knew him for 8 years. Until I got the wedding invitation. I didn't know his last name. Why the hell would I ever need to know his last name? Don't laugh, that is a true story. No, I'm just thinking, I'm just thinking about their people, but I don't know their last name. Right? Yep. So, yeah, I can fall in that same boat. Listen, guys can go hang out, call each other their nicknames and never know their real names. We go camping with these guys all the time. There's a bunch of guys I know, but I only know them by their nicknames. I'm not sure what their real names are. So don't so the here's the point. When you said they should know, they don't know. Well, they know, blah, blah, blah. No, they don't. They don't know. Just assume, from now on, nobody knows. This is why, if you go to a meeting, If you think, they already know this. You will break your brand because you will start talking to them as if they already have the information. But they don't. Jeff Bezos is famous for this. He used to have meetings where they would sit down, bring in the materials, and make everybody read them in the meeting. Because most people won't read them before the meeting, or if they read them, they'll read them at 100 miles an hour and not truly think about it. But if you have 15 to 20 minutes where nobody can talk, and the only thing you need to do is read the 4 pages, You'll be able to focus and do that. He he found out that. People would come to meetings, everyone assumed they knew. Nobody knows. Take it out of your vocabulary, switch it around, pivot it, and believe. nobody's ever knows what you know. Nobody ever. And if you tell them, you can apologize if you want and say, You probably already know this, but for those who don't, da da da da da. Okay. Now, I'm just gonna ask so that I don't dumb this email down too much. Oh, you can't do that either. You can, you cannot dumb it. Listen, Most people speak at a sixth grade education level. Most people write most, the majority, like 80% of the people who write an email write it at a 3rd grade level. Okay. Don't make, don't use big words. Be direct, be simple. I mean, okay. But what I'm what I'm wondering is. This obviously is not his 1st day on the job. Don't assume. You said obviously, no, it's not. This person has been in this role, for several years. You know what? I know. I'm on a board of directors. I see one email every quarter. Okay. All right. So, all right. So should I act like this is his 1st day on the job? And this is my 1st clue that, oh, Matt's on this job. Now, let me introduce myself to Matt. Um, well, you can do that, but an easier way to do it is just to say, make sure I'm getting you the right information. Are you looking for put in something that's obviously close but not correct? They'll correct you. Okay. Okay. And remember, it's okay that the world thinks Americans are rich but stupid. They do. All right. All right. I... okay. So I'm gonna try to write this email, and get it to him. Um, but, like you said, I think I'm going to write the pre email first because I don't want to, I don't want to throw stuff at him that he doesn't want to know. Exactly. So... You, you can, you, see, this is when the my corporate training mask comes on, which, for better or worse, if you were doing the corporate, oh my gosh, this is so awesome. I'm glad you asked, perspective. It would sound something like. Hey, thank you for reaching out. I was wondering when we were ever going to be able to do this. Let's make sure that I get the right information. Can you please, like, is it, is it this, this or this? Okay? Um, if if you just take the, um, Andy without the corporate consulting mask and I just put the mask to the side, here's what you get. You get... So glad you reached out. Make sure I get make sure I get you what you're looking for. Are you looking for boom, something that's like, Sort of close. but not right. And then the answer will come back, oh no, I'm just whatever the answer is. It could either be something like, oh, no, I'm just looking for blah, blah, blah. I'm filling out a thing. I'm putting it on a website. I'm doing this other thing. I'm letting people know, I have to do a brief. We have to do a compliance check. Whatever the answer could be a 100 answers. Which all those things are valid, but you don't know which one it is. So just. And and this is goes back to the 111 thing. One solution, one problem for one group of people. You have one group of person, people, one person. Right? And they have one problem. They've asked you for some information. And your solution is, well, I want to give you the right information. But just one little sentence of tell me about X. Tell me about you. That's not really enough to go on. I've written 1000s of art, you know what I mean? Yeah. That's, that's the way I would go about doing it. Because right now, what I think he wants, just hear me out. What I think he wants is to know how my little royal fashion website is doing anything to help this charity. right? What he doesn't seem to understand is that I make that... that I have such a passion for that charity and what it does, that any time he emails me, anytime, fundraising knocks on my door, anytime, any buddy from that organization reaches out, they automatically can have a platform takeover. Because whatever they need, I'm gonna help them with. And... Well, that's not usually I'm gonna say it just like that. That's not usually the... the reason for reaching out. It usually the opposite. Is there danger? Is there overlap? Is there risk? Remember, humans brains, 100% of the time, are scanning for danger. Yeah. Okay. So he just wants to make sure I'm not gonna do something to mess them up. Maybe, but you don't know. Ask and find out. Okay. All right. Are you really concerned with the queen's, the, the, the full sized butter statue of the former queen? Are you looking for that? If you're curious and genuine, see, here's here's a, um, okay, we're gonna, let's step for a second. into branding and humanity. Okay. Okay. I can give you the script of the words to say, but unless it comes from the heart the right way, it will always come across wrong. If I, if I, so I gave you advice. Hey, thanks for this. We're trying to make sure I get the right information to you. Um, Is it blah, blah, blah. I kind of think you're looking for this. Yeah, get it right or how wrong am I? Whatever right. Well, here's, If you ask it, okay, I'm going to change the tone of my voice so you understand. And I'm sure, I know you do, and I know everybody gets this, but I'm just going to assume maybe you're not aware of it that this degree. So I'm just going to share. If I said, Why do you want to know? In my mind, I'm thinking, are you a big giant a hole? How come you don't know everything? Okay, that that comes across one way. If I say, oh. Why do you want to know? Like, are you setting me up? Are you gonna allow all of a sudden, you know, go after me for some reason? Oh. Well, how do you know in my mind? I'm thinking, do you need to be replaced? Are you looking for a replacement? Do you want to retire and you're not sure who can handle it? Maybe I can. Or I could say, oh, yes, of course. Here, here's everything. And just, and then they take it and do it whatever they want with it. Right? So the thing is, you could say the same words. In your mind, can think a different thing. The words are almost irrelevant. And the, the communicate, the way humans communicate, 60% body language, 30% tone, 10% words. emails only words, little tiny bit of tone. That's why we made up emojis to kind of fix the different, like, hey, this is sarcasm, it's a joke. I'm not being an a-hole, right? Um, But to. The reason that your natural instinct was to go to the call was so that you could capture that other 30, 40% of the information, maybe more. Because that's the thing. Because that's the way we communicate. Yeah, I got you. Andy, I went back and looked at his email while we were on here, because I thought, well, maybe I missed something? And he is asking to hear about my work, my background, my profile. Okay. So... I guess maybe he just wants to know more about all of it. Again... Ask him. Yes. Okay. And I call this the 10% answer. By the way, I do this, you should, you should adopt this for everything forever. It works all the time. Here's how it goes. You sent an email to me. Hey, can you tell me about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. go, yeah, sure. Make sure I get the right answer. Are you looking for black? Something close, but some kind of end. So I've acknowledged that you said something. I responded directly to them. I'm asking for their help in order for me to give them best information they're looking for. But I only did 10% of the work. Then they tell me the rest, and that creates the box that I can fill in with the information they ask for. And then I answer it to them. This is this is a exceptional technique that you should use for every sales, every phone call, every negotiation, every contract, every everything, if you can. The only time it doesn't really work is at the grocery store or ordering food. But here's how I do it ordering food. The waitress, waiter, whoever is serving us, the server comes up and says, okay, look, we're looking, we've got, Do you guys want to get started with something? I say, oh, yes, but can you tell me the specials? Do you guys got anything going on today? Right? I acknowledge, I answered, I asked them for more information. They give you the rest of the information, and then I go, cool, now I can make a decision. I think we're gonna go with X, Y, and Z. By the way, what do you recommend? Whatever they recommend, I always eat by the way. Unless you're unless you're allergic to it. Why? It's the best stuff. Whatever they recommend is either good or they're trying to sell it. Either way, I'm helping the restaurant. So who cares? Oh, no. I remember the last time we went out to eat. My best friend and I did. We specifically asked the waiter, the waiter, who was waiting on us, um, not for a meal recommendation, 'cause we already knew what we wanted. But when it came to dessert, well, like, if you had to pick, if you were picking, what would be the one you would go to? And he told us, and we said, Okay, then what would be the 2nd one you would go to? And he told us, and we're like, all right. Because we figured he gave us the two best, in his opinion, the two best on the menu, right? So... dessert, we did pretty well. Yes. You can take that up a whole nother level, if you ask them, what do you actually eat? What do you have for dessert? What' your favorite dessert? Mhm. And then just go, is it really that good? Oh, my gosh, it's amazing. All right, we'll have two of those. Yeah. Yeah. It can be fun when you do that. So... You also get the best stuff. You get the best service. You're, what, what's really happening is you're empowering them to help you. Listen, if you want to be successful in life and you want to help people, the framework you need to have in your mind at all times is, How can I create a frame that you, whoever I'm helping, can walk into? Not? Here's what I'm going to tell you the answer. I used to do that. Oh, my gosh. Uh, I'm the worst at that. But I've learned that it's much better to create a frame and let people walk into it than it is for me to, because everybody wants to buy something. They just don't like being sold. want to choose. So give them the opportunity to make the choice. And when you're when people are helping you buy stuff, Ask them, like those are framing questions. Not pick one for me, but what's your favorite? I'm interested in you, you tell me. Ooh, secret stuff. I like this one over here. Cool. Let's have one of those. Because now I'm giving them the spotlight. I'm allowing them to see that they have value. I'm letting them influence the decision. And then I decide. This. And if you're the waiter, uh, ask them what their favorite is. What's your favorite dessert? We might have something like that. This one's really close to that. Is that your favorite? you want one of those? I can have them put some extra butter on it, if that's what you like. Give people the mic. I want you guys to come up and ask the questions. I want you to bring your challenges. But here's the thing. If I just answer the questions, which I've done for 108 times, Here's what happens. People listen. They're doing their stuff in the background, they're nodding, okay, you know, Heather is working with her kids. She's probably got some lesson planned going and she's doing that. Trishard is, is, has got his plants going and he's working on it. He's got this in the background, listening. Jane's doing her studying for cybersecurity. Each one of those things is valuable and important. But how are you going to move away from your space? If this is just entertainment, fine, I could be entertaining. If you wanna learn, you have to ask. Oh, no, I'm sitting here. I'm sitting here working on crafting the email. as I'm listening to you. Because I'm like, Might as well start writing it while I've got him here. Yes, exactly. Immediately, right? Those are, those are the keys. So, So, Trey Shard, what's, uh, I see you grabbed the mic. What's going on with you today? What's what is what is your thought around meetings, building, or damaging, breaking your brand? Um. Well, I, something that I really didn't, uh, connect with until I started on X this past year. was how important the actual conversations were. Um, I mean, verbal, like audio, hearing another person's voice and actually connecting with them. Um, I've been A lot of the work that I do is actually, I've been trying to connect with customers, just through email or through DMs and I realized that there's something like you connect with a person on a different level when you can actually hear their voice. Um, Something I was gonna ask is, uh, The way you frame that there for Patricia, um, How do you get the person on the other side to actually engage with that question? So so you're like opening opening the field for them to kind of, I guess, set the frame. But how do you get them engage with that? Be willing to be wrong and corrected, give them the position of authority to correct you, and then be gracious when they do. You don't have to be the, I mean, I'm an expert in the things that I'm an expert in. If I left it there, you guys would think I have a big jerk. But in reality, I'm like an expert in one or 2 things. But that means that there's like a 1000000 other things that I'm just average and need help with, and I'm curious about. Alright. Yeah, I mean, I know, Andy, that I can come to you for branding stuff. I can come to you with questions like this. But I also know I could come to you if I was into becoming a black belt. I could come to you with that. Um, I do happen to know it would probably be the most hilarious time of our lives, me trying to do that, but... I, um, we, we have successfully helped people who, uh, high functioning autism, people's in a chair, people without limbs, all of them become black belts. Okay, well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it wouldn't be cool. One of the best? Yep, one of the best teachers I've ever seen. is, um, an amazing guy, but he, uh, he's non-verbal. He can't speak. Okay? Um, for I, and I forget he, so, he told me, or he explained it to me one time. I don't remember what it is, but Essentially, Everything's functional. You just can't talk. Okay? So he signs and all of that, right? Okay. But, um, Amazing teacher. And, I was asking, How do you? How do you teach the people without? He just basically goes up and, you know, gets an abstance and says, you know, okay. You know? And people just watch, and mimic, and do exactly what he says, because there's, there's no way for him to explain why it's the right thing to do. They just do what he does. And frankly, Especially in martial arts as an example for the rest of learning, everything. Doing it. Teaches you more than the talking. ever does. Okay. So if I could choose, I would choose you guys to do exercises and do stuff. First, and fail, and then say, okay, I tried this. It, it, and I got this result, I want to get that other result. Either, you know, help me. Then it would be, then it's so easy. Okay, you did this thing. And you can do this thing better or stop doing that, do this other thing, whatever it is, but the taking the action is the most important part. And by the way, here's I gave you the the one reason why people don't take action. There's only one reason. Okay? It's, and it comes across as fear. We feel it as fear, but the fear is not that they're going to laugh at us. The fear is I'm never going to get another shot. That's the fear. That's why we don't. We feel like everything has to be done perfectly the first time, whatever. It's bad school programming. Don't believe it. Go, yeah, out in the woodshed, take that little part out of your back, beat the crap out of it, leave it there. Don't bring it back. Because it was beat into you for 12 or 15, 18 years, that you had to show up on time, give exactly the right answer, and only you, nobody but you, and you cannot cheat or share or get help from anybody else. And that's wrong. Yeah, how about we, how about we do this? Here's the reality. If you if you deliver it and it works and you had a whole bunch of people helping you, bonus, awesome, you win. And yet, we still operate under the idea that we have to do it right the 1st time. We never get a 2nd chance. You're gonna fail. You're going to get the bad grade. It's going to be on your permanent record forever. Just remember this, I'm an old guy. I literally took tests and had to pass and fail the test on information they found out was absolutely crap and wrong. But it's on my permanent grade record. Because at the time, that's what was in the textbook. And today it's not. Think about that. You have the same situation. You have permanent grades for things that today, they figured out, weren't exactly the way they thought and when they taught you and made you take a test on them. Take that part of your brain out, back, beat the, living crap out of it. Leave it there. Andy, it sounds like we're not only getting Andy today. It sounds like we're getting a little bit of drill. You're getting the unfiltered me. I know. The less mask, the more effective it is. I know, but I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think if there's any other time I've heard Gene tell anybody to take something out that to the woodshed and beat the living out of it. And I don't think I ever have. So I think we're definitely getting Drew tonight. But, hey, that's cool. I, you know, But, yeah, I think, I think for me, what, what definitely is coming up with this email is, I don't want to give a matter wrong answer. So that's why I definitely am. Make Matt, then make, or gently, get Matt to tell you what the truth, what he really wants. Yeah. I'm I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do my best. Okay, here's the thing. You don't have to do your best. You just have to do it. It's really not that big a deal. I literally do it every day. If you start listening to the transcripts, when I start telling you about this stuff that you should do, you should imagine I'm demonstrating this every single day. Okay. Okay. Right? Okay, let's go back, let's go back to our conversation. You said, I've got this email, I've got this, and I go, mm, yeah, okay. First, you are assuming everybody knows everything. They don't. Okay, so that was the 1st 10%. Right. Okay. your frame's wrong. Let's reset the frame. Okay, the frame is, You know what you know. They don't. They might. But it probably don't. So, reset it. Secondly, if they don't know what you're talking about, there's no way you can assume, well, they know what I do. No, they don't. So we've reset the frame, then I'd like triple down like 10 times on it. Finally, you went, oh, okay, well then what do I do? Oh, you ask them, what do they want? Right? Yeah, and it sounds like Daisy has an opinion too. Oh, you can hear Daisy in the background barking at the front door. Yes, I can, but it's okay. I like daising. It's cool. Um... So, to go back to the article that I wrote, oh, we'll go to crypto. Do you guys your hand? Did you want to jump in, crypto? Yeah, okay. Let's go there. Cryptos cryptosi. I think I've saying it right. Uh, yes, you said. Thank you for letting me speak here. Um, You said points before to Patricia's topic about um, the tone while speaking, while speaking. And my challenge is that I'm in the same job science around about 6 years, and I want to go to a job interview and I'm not used to it anymore to talk within this job interviews. And from the context, I just got the topic was right with the tone while speaking and so on. And I'm a little nervous about that, so that job interview. Well, welcome, Bonjour, Bonsoir, wherever you are. Um, in Germany and my cat's name is Daisy too. Your cat's name is Daisy too. Yeah? Gutenag, yeah, Gutenaben. We've got... So here's, uh, I don't know. Are, are, is, so if you, are you interviewing with a German firm or an international firm? Uh, no, no, it's here in my region. It's a German film. Okay. I don't know how, um, how the interviews go in Germany, right? I've worked in France. I've worked in Africa. I've worked in Egypt, I've worked in Turkey and other places, but not Germany. So I don't, and, Germany's a little different than the rest of the world. So I don't know exactly how it works, but here's, here's the best interview strategy there is, and I have interviewed 100s of people. I've hired 100s of people. Um, There's this is the best strategy. And you can imagine how to apply it to your situation. The best strategy is to ask them somehow to explain the problem that you're trying to answer. The same thing we just did with Patricia. Patricia said, I got an email that had a question. Tell me about blah, blah, blah, the profile, whatever. We talked about having her respond and say, in order to give you the best information, I think you're looking for X or something like that. Get them to explain the frame so that you can be successful. And The way you can do it in a job interview is by asking them, Obviously, there's a role definition, there's a job description that you have to start with, right? But that role and job description are the prerequisites of you as a skilled person working in that job, but it doesn't say what you're actually going to do. So you can ask them, what is the project? What are we trying to accomplish? What are the challenges that you're facing that you need somebody like me? They will explain it to you, and then that will give you the frame to answer with, okay, I wrote code this way. I've done it for them. I can do it for you. Or I did this type of analysis for that group, since you need analysis, I've done analysis. I did it over here. I can do it for you. You have challenges. I've dealt with challenges over here. I can deal with them for you. You can then demonstrate, uh, some kind of capability or proficiency in the thing. Does that make sense? Uh, yeah, sure. But, um, to the point, um, that I am asking them what the goals from the project are, uh, hears it so that um, we must inform ourselves about the um, concern before we go to this job interviews. So, and I'm just not used to it anymore because I'm working 6 years for the same company. And yeah. Okay. Use, use your favorite LLM. Find out the company, find out the job description, ask the LLM, is there any news or correlation between this job request and this company? Is there anything new? Is there an announcement? Has there been in news league? Has there been any discussion? Research them. Use all of your analytical skills. To dig into that company so that you have at least Uh, you, you, you may not be able to get the right answer, but you can eliminate maybe 180 degrees of not answer. That'll at least get you closer than going in with no idea. Yeah. And then practice answering. Um, questions. You don't have to practice answering them to me or, but if you want, that's fine. But the point is, you have to say something 5 or 6 or 7 times. Here's what I actually recommend for everyone. Grab your phone, turn on the recorder, and, you know, use the LLM and say, okay, we found the company, we figured out what we think they're gonna talk about. Imagine you're interviewing me, give me 25 interview questions. Then take the questions, turn on your recorder, and answer them. Copy the transcript from the recorder, put it back into the LLM and say, these are my answers. Help me make them better. And then practice the revised version that they did. Every, it doesn't matter if you're using Gemini or Claude or Manus or or ChatGPT Grock or they all do the similar thing. But, um, doesn't, uh, seems that, that I'm, that I had studied the answer for the concert, and that's a thing, uh, which the people can hear in the tone. I think if I just studied the answer right before, or if I'm authentic then, so I'm a little unsure about this. Oh. Okay, um, you're concerned that it's going to seem like you've rehearsed your answers. Yes? Okay. Doesn't everybody rehearse their answers before they go to a job interview? Yeah, that's why, yeah. Don't the interviewers think their answers are going to be rehearsed? Yeah, true, yeah. So don't, don't worry about it. The, um, the, the reason you practice the answer, you're never gonna say it the right way. Don't don't worry about that. You practice the answer so that you get in the habit of speaking out loud about the things that you think about every day. If you work in a technical space, I'm assuming technical because you have crypto in your name. If you think in a technical way, you think and solve problems in your mind. You're not solving problems out loud talking to people. An interview is only out loud talking to people about the things you use in your mind. You have to get used to doing that. Most developers, and I work in as an IT project manager and program manager and executive coach. And that's the biggest problem they have. They're smart. Everybody's smart. Capable, absolutely. Able to communicate is a skill you have to learn, and you have to practice it. It's what the doing part, what I said earlier. Do, practice, and the easiest way to practice is in the mirror with a recorder. No one's listening. If you screw up, nobody cares. There's no damage. Try it. 5 or 6 or 10, 15 ways. Record it, transcribe it, give it to your LLM and say, can I make this better? Can I make it smaller? Can I squeeze it? Am I talking too much? Yes, yes, and yes. The best way to handle a job interview is to ask them what their problem is so that you can show how you can help them solve their problem. Remember, the only reason you're in the interview is because they have an open chair in their organizational chart, and they need somebody to fill it. They're looking for you. And if you are there and you're likable, you're interesting, you're curious. What is your real problem? Tell me what's going on, so I might be able to figure out a way to describe how my experience can help benefit you. Okay, thank you very much. And practice, when is your interview? Uh, tomorrow. Okay. So it's the evening time. When we get off the space in a few minutes, just go to the recorder and practice a few times. Don't, it don't make a marathon simple, easy, no big deal. Answer some questions, have the LLM give you some ideas about making it smaller, and then Go to your interview and come back tomorrow and tell us what happened. Love to hear it. Okay, thank you so, so much. And it's, remember, if you're working now and you have an interview, okay, fine, you still have a job. Right? That's the best, that is the best time to go to an interview when you don't need it. So just go, Be yourself. Be curious about their problems, see if maybe you can help them. And if not, well, just tell them, I don't think it's gonna fit. I thank you for the interviews. Maybe it doesn't fit. I've done that. It. It's a challenge. But the reason, again, back to what we were talking about before, the reason we're scared is because they don't think they get enough chance. The reason salesmen push would become big slimy jerks and hard clothes use because they feel like that's the only one they're going to get that day. It's the only chance they have. If you can imagine, you're going to have 100 interviews. In a row, one a day for the next 100 days. After about the 3rd or 4th one, You'll be able to just ask them questions. Well, what are you looking for? You looking for this? Oh, I don't know. That's probably not gonna work for me. Well, what do you mean? Well, I've got 94 more to go. Right? But we have a tendency to we humans, all of us. We have a tendency to think, oh my gosh, this is my only shot at this. It's not. There are 8000000000 people in the world. There are 100s of millions of companies. This is not your only chance. There are more chances. And for those who think, because you're old, it's over bananas. That's bull crap. And the reason it is, is because look at, uh, so, okay, look at my picture. I took that picture a few months ago. Do I look like I'm 61 years old in that picture? I'm 61. No, you don't. Right. Do I sound like I'm an old guy ready to retire? No. I'm not. I have the same energy as somebody who was, you know, 20 years ago, was 40 years old. I haven't changed or aged. I just have more years on my driver's license. And the birthday cake has more candles. That's it. But it's not really stopping me or slowing me down, and it's not going to stop or slow down anybody else. Okay, let's go back to Patricia and we'll go to Trishard. Okay, so I, 1st of all, lovely job, crypto, good luck with the interview tomorrow. You're gonna do fantastic. I already know that. You're gonna do fantastic. Um, Now, Andy, my question to you is, I have a draft of this email. Do you want me to read it to you or do you want me to DM it to you? Why not? Read it. read it out loud. All right, I'll read it to you. Hold on. Um, I said, Dear Matt, there's so much I can tell you, and I'm happy to do so. But is there anything specific you would like me to focus on? Right now, I'm just imagining that you're curious as to why this American royal fashion enthusiast cares anything about a children's hospice. Okay, um, yes, except for that last part. I would I would be, I would just change it into curious language. Seems like you're interested in why this, am I close? Leave it over. Seems like you're interested into, as you want, seems like you're interested as to why this American royal fashion enthusiast cares about a children's hospice? Well, okay. No, I'm asking if that's what you meant. Yes and no. Okay? We've talked today about creating the frame, but The creating the frame is creating the frame that other people walk through. So when you describe yourself with all of those adjectives, You're providing the frame and you want him to look through. If he says yes, then you can just continue with that path. But if he says no, you have to ask him again. Then what did you mean? If you just said, seems like you're interested in why I'm inter, it seems like you want to know. Why I'm interested in a in a hospice or in a children's hospice. Or Okay. Give, leave it open, let him set the frame so you can provide the answer that he's looking for. Does it make am I making sense? Yeah, yeah, okay. So, not referring to myself as an American royal fashion enthusiast. Maybe just, you know, seemed like curious as to why... I'm interested in the in the charity. Okay. Okay, okay. Yeah. Does that, I mean, you're tracking, right? Yes, yes. Okay. Okay. So taking out all of the other adjectives, And just that I'm interested in... this. Okay, I'm gonna go deep for just a second. No problem. Okay. We have a self reflective view of our, of how we want other people to see us. It's natural, it's normal. It's what everybody has. The way that you know what somebody wants you to think about them is the way they describe themselves with the words they use. Okay. If you just take those away and let other people fill in whatever words they want. You will get a better understanding of how the world sees you. And whether or not that aligns with the way you see yourself. Usually there is some kind of gap. Just saying. We always are a little self delusional. We think we're over here, you know, we're one of the letters, X, Y, or Z, and everybody thinks we're a QR or, you know, S or something. You know, it's like, oh. Cool, at least I'm on the alphabet somewhere, right? Right. That. Taking away the self-defining terms And not taking him out back and beating the crap out of him. But, Leaving them on the side of the road and continue to drive on. It's a really good strategy too. Okay. It allows for the world to give you a frame. But usually much bigger than you think of yourself. Almost always. And here's the other very, very deep, dark human psychology secret. The less I say about myself, the more you will fill in the gaps about me. The more I, the more I refrain, you may say I don't see him that way. And here's the crazy thing. Every single person who fills in the gaps about you Always has the most positive things to say about you. Way more positive than you say about yourself. So a real An absolute Um. It's not a hack. It is a strategy, is to provide value without context. Everyone who hears it will add their own context. The context they add to you will elevate you in their eyes. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay, one more. Okay, with the stuff that I sent you in the DM, right? Think about how that applies. Okay, you're talking about the DM from the other day. Yep. Okay. Just making sure I'm looking at the right DM. Okay. What I mean is... Yeah. We define ourselves based on what we've heard other people say. Right. But the the real frame is what other people think, but don't say. And what people think about you and don't say is always an elevated version of yourself. Okay. If you watch any of the Tony Robbins things or any of the other ones, they almost always do the same kind of exercise. They pull somebody up and say, okay, what do you think they're thinking about you? And for the men, it's it's it's a certain set of things. For the ladies, it's almost always kind of a judging thing. Oh, they're judging me, or they want this, or they're looking at my shoes or looking at my clothes, or you know, why am I dressed like this? Why am I looked? Why is my hair this way? And the truth is that when they ask the audience, the audience isn't thinking any of those things. The point is, we self-reflect based on what other people have said. About us. But what other people think about us is always an elevated view. than what we think of ourselves. That's why we should stop using our own self-defining terms. It's also why I say, this is a dumb example. Everybody goes, no, it's not Andy. That's a good example. No, no, no. Okay, this is a done. Listen, let me explain to you in the dumbest way I can think of. Oh Andy, that's a really smart way. No, I'm not trying to get people to think that. But that's what they do. I'm not trying to manipulate the situation. I'm simply saying, okay, in my own mind, this is the most simple example I can think of. It's a dumb example, but I think it might work. Everybody goes, that's a really good example. I am going to use that. Yeah. And by the way, I really think most of my examples are like adequate at best. I'm sure I'll think of some good ones later, but when you guys start repeating them, I'll think, oh, that was pretty good. I wasn't so dumb. That was kind of okay. Yeah. So, okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna work on editing this section and... and, uh... Simple is better, simple is better, and when you're done, go back and take about half the words out. Okay. Kind of like packing. We're gonna go here on vacation. We're gonna go for 7 days and here's all the stuff I brought. Yep. Take half of it, put it back in the closet. You're still taking too much. Yeah. Yeah. I always overpack. Yes, but we also oversay when we're trying to do something like this. Yes. It could have been simply a two sentence emails. Oh, hey, that's great. What are you looking for? I want to make sure I get you the right stuff. Send. Well, yeah, I also, I'm laughing because my bio dad, he, he had, um, his job was as a pastor, and he always had to write sermons and always struggle with it. And then he'd look at me and go, and she opens her mouth in a 2 page paper comes out. So like... Can I tell you a secret? Every, every single pastor, ever, ever struggles with that. It's hard. It's like writing a, it's like writing a term paper every week. You're good for the 1st 6 weeks. After 5 years, you're like, 0 God, I just got to grind through it. Yes, of course. But what, but what I, but what I don't understand is their source material is right there, or maybe it's because the source material doesn't change. don't know. No, it's like, no, it's, it's, it's more simple than that. Yeah. They feel like they have to say something new every time. Uh, and he was, he, he is not very good at that. Let me tell you. So, um, but yeah, so, okay, well, that explains it. So I'm just gonna have to turn this 2 page paper down to, like, a 2 paragraph thing. Yes. Um, Yeah, wish me luck. Actually, I'll probably send it to you before I actually send it. If you want, sure. Sure, that's fine. If you don't mind. Sorry, I shouldn't assume that I came. No, it's okay. It's all right. If I have time, I'll answer you. Cool. The, it's... The, The way... That... Create a frame for other people to walk through. Okay. And then encourage them to walk through it. And when they walk through it, congratulate, and applaud them. And then tell them how great they are for doing that. And then see if maybe that provides enough information for you to give a good answer. Okay. All right, will do. The reason I come every day is because, in the startup circle, we talk about helping people make money. And The things that I'm not an expert in marketing and sales. I'm an expert in humans and team building because for 30 years, I've run projects and managed teams and had to build effective groups. That could deliver in a short period of time, limited budget, not even with people who don't always speak the same language, not even in the same location. And so you have to figure out how to create a cohesive team in that environment or you won't survive. That's one of the only things I'm an expert in. The other expertise is simply being able to take complex things and turn them into simple statements everybody understands. Though that's my superpower. That it. Everything else, you know, I'm average. I'm just, I'm probably worse than average everybody else. But those two things, I'm an expert. I have done it. Over and over, Tens of 1000s of hours of meetings, 10s of 1000s of hours of writing, All of it. Maties can break or build your brand because in the meeting, you can see the frame of what people say. And you can either walk through it or encourage them to create the frame. If you create a frame and people go, oh, that's not really you. You've damaged your brand. If you're curious and interesting and let people talk. All of a sudden, your brand gets elevated because of the way they think of you. And the way they think of you is if you create a frame and let them walk into it and explain everything to you. They think the highest elevation of things about you. It is contrary to what the movies show and what TV shows, almost what every book read. But I can tell you from absolute undeniable empirical proof. What I'm saying is true and works every time. But it's about, it's about the heart. How you say things, how it comes across is from your heart. You have the answer to somebody's problem. And the metaphor that I use to describe that is, they don't know you exist until you tell them, until you light a torch and carry it out into the dark world, and they see something flickering off in the distance and wondering, what is that? Will that help me? So light your torch. Carry it out into the dark world and tell people you can help them. See you tomorrow.