{"id":3006,"date":"2018-06-25T03:30:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T08:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2018-06-25T09:19:13","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T14:19:13","slug":"how-to-make-keep-your-message-relevant-with-joe-calloway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/how-to-make-keep-your-message-relevant-with-joe-calloway\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make &#038; Keep Your Message Relevant with Joe Calloway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are new businesses, thought leaders, influencers, coaches, consultants, you name it coming onto the scene every single day. So, how you can stand out and make sure your business, and voice, is relevant in a crowded marketplace? This week&#8217;s guest is going to tell us exactly that!<\/p>\n<p>Joe Calloway works with leaders to help make great companies even better. He is a business author and conducts interactive sessions with leaders on how they can better simplify, focus, and execute in their businesses. Joe is also a partner in The Disruption Lab; which is a consulting group that helps companies with innovation and transformation.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode, Joe talks about differentiating yourself by creating genuine value for your clients or customers, why he believes his influence is greater in smaller settings, why he takes a collaborative approach to his work, why just being different from your competition isn\u2019t enough, the simple way to get the marketplace to \u201cbeat a path to your door,\u201d how simplifying something is more difficult that it being complicated, and so much more!<\/p>\n<p>Take a listen to the episode below!<\/p>\n<p>Mentioned in this episode:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/joecalloway.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Calloway&#8217;s Website<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/how-to-use-adversity-to-accelerate-growth-with-dr-colby-jubenville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Voice of Influence | Episode 51: How to Use Adversity to Accelerate Growth with Dr. Colby Jubenville<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Play here (the red triangle below), on<span style=\"color: #800000;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/voiceofinfluences-podcast\/id1223799516\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/s?fid=135618&amp;refid=stpr\">Stitcher<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/Voice-of-Influence-Personal-Branding-p1009849\/\">TuneIn Radio<\/a> <\/span>(Amazon Alexa) or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/h2>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3008\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=589%2C327\" alt=\"Joe Calloway Voice of Influence Andrea Joy Wenburg\" width=\"589\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?w=810&amp;ssl=1 810w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=300%2C167&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=768%2C427&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=760%2C422&amp;ssl=1 760w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=518%2C288&amp;ssl=1 518w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=82%2C46&amp;ssl=1 82w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?resize=600%2C333&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 589px) 100vw, 589px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/6740485\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/autoplay\/no\/autonext\/no\/thumbnail\/yes\/preload\/no\/no_addthis\/no\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/ad2c30\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Transcript<\/h2>\n<p>Hey, hey! It\u2019s Andrea, and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast!<\/p>\n<p>Today, I have with me Joe Calloway. I\u2019m so thrilled to have him because he works with leaders to help make great companies even better. He\u2019s a business author and conducts interactive sessions with leaders on how they can better simplify, focus, and execute in their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Joe is also a partner in the Disruption Lab, which is a consulting group that helps companies with innovation and transformation. Oh, all these words that I love. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Annette and her daughters, Jessica, and Kate.<\/p>\n<p>Joe, welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Hey, Andrea, thank you so much for having me!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: So what would you say is the core of the message that you have in your business with your voice of influence, what are you trying to get across to the world or to leaders?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, I think that if I boil it down, it would be about value, how differentiate about creating genuine value for your clients or customers. And with leaders, it\u2019s how do they create value as being a place to work for their employees and then also how do you lift that team of employees so that the entire organization is creating value. That\u2019s mostly, as you said in the introduction, I mostly work with leadership groups now, which I love doing. It\u2019s funny, after doing this forever; I\u2019m really having more fun now than I think I ever had.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: Why is that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: You know, I think I\u2019m like a bowling ball that bounces around and finally gets in the grove. I think I\u2019ve got my grove on. I\u2019m doing a message that I enjoy and that message continually evolves and changes. It has to, because I\u2019m talking with businesses and business changes all the time. I\u2019ve also gone from, I used to give speeches, I mean I would give a speech to 10,000 people or 5,000 people and it was made you in all the talking and the spotlight was on me and I really got sick of it.<\/p>\n<p>Oddly enough, I got bored with it. And now, I prefer to say, I do conversations. I work with much smaller groups and it\u2019s very conversational and, to tell you the truth, I have more meaningful influence. So I\u2019m having more fun. I\u2019m working with groups that I love to work with and I\u2019m doing it in a style, in a format that\u2019s fun for me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: Hmm, yeah. I love those smaller groups where you can really go back and forth. So you feel like your influence is greater in this smaller setting because why?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: I think because it truly does lend itself to that word that you used which was conversation. The group I\u2019m going to be working with tomorrow is about 60 people and it\u2019s going to be a very much a roll-up your sleeves and I\u2019ll talk then I\u2019ll give them something to work on and then we will talk together about what they came up with.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the coolest thing that I\u2019ve discovered, Andrea, I think I\u2019d do my best to work and I give them the most value in terms of my ideas in what I\u2019ve learned when I\u2019m responding to something that they just said as opposed to me going on with my outline, which I do. But I kind of set the stage for the conversation and it\u2019s in that conversation that I think I have the greatest impact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: It sounds to me like you\u2019re talking about a difference between content and insight. Because content, it seems like we can share that and then they have to go and apply it, but with insight you\u2019re able to offer something that\u2019s specific to them in their situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, it is that, and I\u2019ll tell you something interesting about this speaking business, a lot of people start out and they really just kind of do and book reports. They\u2019re talking about what other people have said or written, which is fine. There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with that. And then a lot of times, the next day, you start digging out the information on your own. But sometimes where your career leads you, and this is where I\u2019m think and hope I am now, is the people that I work with they\u2019re saying, \u201cWell, Joe, what do you think? What do you believe about this? What\u2019s your opinion about this?<\/p>\n<p>You know, it takes some years and some going around the truck a few times to build up the credibility to, I think, legitimately have that kind of bliss with credibility and I hope I have accomplished that. But it\u2019s that give and take of \u201cHere\u2019s what I think, what do you guys think?\u201d And tomorrow I\u2019m going to be doing a lot of that. I\u2019m going to be saying, \u201cLook, everybody in this room an experienced leader, what do think in addition to what I think?\u201d So I think the combination of those opinions and those insights gives all of us greater insight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Hmm love it! I know that you are all about this collaborative environment and I\u2019m curious if that sort of always been an important thing to you, you know, this bringing value, creating value and doing it with this collaborative environment? Is it personal to you in any kind of way?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: You know it\u2019s interesting. It\u2019s funny; I just made a short promotional video, just a couple of minutes about how I work. The word that I focused on was exactly the word that you just used, which was collaborative. And what I say is I\u2019m very collaborative in the way that I work, not just in the decision itself but I\u2019m very collaborative before the event or the meeting because I want to know what\u2019s going on with them.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t happen much anymore but every now and then _____ would say, \u201cJoe, just come in and do your thing.\u201d And I\u2019m thinking, I don\u2019t know what my thing is until I know what\u2019s going on with you guys.\u201d I have some sort of contexts so that this really has some meaning for you guys. Yeah, it\u2019s personal in a couple of ways. One way that it\u2019s personal is that I simply find it personally much more satisfying for me to make it about them. Because a lot of times, we\u2019ve all set and listen to people and we\u2019re thinking, \u201cOK, this is interesting and this is all well and good.\u201d But I don\u2019t really see how it applies to me.<\/p>\n<p>The reaction that I want because it\u2019s more fun and, because duh, it\u2019s good for my business, the reaction that I want is for them to be thinking, \u201cMy gosh, I can do what he\u2019s talking about and it makes all the sense in the world for me to do that. So I\u2019m gonna go tomorrow and start doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So I do try to make it personal in just that way of working, the really highly customized messaging. Andrea, it\u2019s just more fun for me because I get bored if I do the same thing over and over. I\u2019ve got a very low threshold for boredom. I think it\u2019s a double edge sword. It\u2019s a blessing and a curse. But anyway, it\u2019s the way I\u2019m wired. So yeah, I like to make the messaging as personally relevant, and that\u2019s another I think key word, as relevant as I can possibly make it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> OK, so we\u2019re talking about differentiation and that\u2019s a big piece of your message. What kind of suggestions or what approach do you have to differentiation?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: There are a lot of people out there and a lot of businesses that are falling into a trap. You look at the root of the word differentiation and the root of it is different, and yet, I think it\u2019s a mistake for people to sit down and say, \u201cOK everybody, we\u2019ve got to be different. We\u2019ve got to be different in the competition and if we\u2019re different then we\u2019ll do better.\u201d Look, everybody can put on a funny hat and that will make you different. The best different and the only different that matters is to be better.<\/p>\n<p>If you got a restaurant, you can be different through some sort of gimmick but that\u2019s going to wear off. But if you\u2019re different because you\u2019re better, because the food is better, because the value is better, because your service is better, you know, just go down the list. If you\u2019re different because you\u2019re better that\u2019s the wisest thing. Oh my gosh, what was it? I cannot take credit for this. I read it on the website of some company, who I would love to credit them but I simply can\u2019t remember who it was. But it said, bells and buzzers wear off, value never dies.<\/p>\n<p>So for me, that\u2019s not key, key, key point on differentiation. Look, in every aspect of everything that you do and how you serve your particular market, how can you be better? How can you improve on that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: OK, so value meaning improving what you have and making sure that what you offer is something of value to the other person. I\u2019m assuming that\u2019s what you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, it is. I tell you what, in business today more and more that\u2019s getting to the point. Here\u2019s a question that I post to my clients a lot, I\u2019d say, \u201cSomething\u2019s gonna put you out of business in the next five years, maybe the next three years or maybe quicker than that. Something will put you out of business, meaning the way you exist today. Now the question is, is somebody else gonna put you out of business or are you gonna put you out of business?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: By moving on to be the next thing that you need to be or the next iteration or the next state of evolution for your business so that you can better serve whoever your market is because the market changes all the time. I mean, it just constantly changes and we all have to get better.<\/p>\n<p>So a lot of differentiation is rooted in, what do we need to change? What do we need to start doing that we\u2019re not doing? What do we need to be better at that we\u2019re already doing? And this could be the biggest one, what do we need to start doing? That\u2019s a tough one, Andrea. It could be that you say, \u201cWell, everything is working. I\u2019m not gonna start doing anything,\u201d and that\u2019s a trap. You\u2019ve got to be one step ahead and figure out how you need to change because if you don\u2019t, the market is going to tell you and it may tell you in a very unpleasant way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> So, let\u2019s say you have a couple of, maybe three or four leaders in a room that they realize that they need to stay on top of this. But how did they decide which things to target or is there\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Great question. That\u2019s a great, great question. Let me tell you, there are a lot of big companies _____, you mentioned the Disruption Lab that I\u2019m a partner in, we\u2019re working with some very big corporations. But what we\u2019re doing is taking a couple of people and working with them in their assignment from their employers, from that corporation is you need to think like a startup. We need to have part of this company thinking very entrepreneurially.<\/p>\n<p>And the nature of a startup is you say, \u201cOK, here\u2019s the product or service based on what you wanna do, what you think has value, or what you think people will pay for it.\u201d Here\u2019s the product or service that I\u2019m going to set up and then you put it out there and guess what, the market is going to give you some information and you\u2019re going to say, \u201cOops, I think maybe we need to change course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And maybe then you\u2019ll need to change course again and again or maybe you need to say the market is telling us, they\u2019re not interested in this. We need to start over. But the nature of starting something new, and you have to look at it this way, is it\u2019s largely a learning process. Now, where do we find these areas of opportunity? Here\u2019s a really good place to look, what can you make easier for people to do? What can you make easier for people to buy? Look, at least I have a couple of examples.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> I love this by the way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Say that again?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> I love this, what can we do to make things easier.\u201d Keep it going.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Think about this, why is Amazon such a name of success and such a master in the marketplace? Because they made it so easy to buy anything, I mean anything particularly an Amazon Prime member, which more and more people are all the time, you press one button and you own it. It\u2019s getting to the point where pretty soon, you\u2019ll press the button and in 10 minutes a drone will be outside your front door with whatever that you just bought.<\/p>\n<p>OK, look at the company that everybody\u2019s sites is being the poster company for disruption, Uber. What did Uber do? They made it easier to get a ride. So if you can figure out an easier, simpler way to do almost anything, the market place as the old saying goes will be a path to your door.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: Hmmm love that! OK, so I know another thing that you talked about, it\u2019s kind of related to easier is simpler and simplifying, which you have very, very eloquently stated in videos and in your website things about how being complicated is easier than simplifying. So talk to us about these concepts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, I think in the video on my website. I don\u2019t know where this word comes from. But I said, any knuckle head can make something complicated which is true. Listen, I will have a room full of anybody, but certainly if I\u2019ve got a room for the leaders, I\u2019ll say this, I\u2019ll say, \u201cRaise your hand if you frequently have this thought that the audience you know I think were making this way more complicated than it needs to be.\u201d And Andrea, every hand in the room goes up every single time. We all make it, meaning pretty much everything more complicated than it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>I challenged them by saying, \u201cLook, if you\u2019re a leader,\u201d but really this applies to anybody, \u201cbut certainly if you\u2019re a leader, I would challenge you that one of your core responsibilities is to simplify the complicated.\u201d I\u2019ll give you a great example. I was working with a nonprofit 30 years ago. They were wanting to rethink their purpose in how to go about creating more value to their marketplace as a nonprofit. Well, they had a three paragraphs statement of purpose. It was kind of a vision statement. Three paragraphs and the paragraphs were kind of long, this is here we are and this is what we do.<\/p>\n<p>So I charged them with boiling that down to the absolute essence of what it meant? Now, this was a nonprofit that works with young women, with girls in all sorts of ways helping them better themselves. What they boiled that three paragraph statement down to was three words and the words were, We Empower Girls. And they were so fired up over tapping into that _____ that in months and months later they said, it\u2019s the most empowering thing for ourselves that we ever did was to simplify that goofy, complicated mission vision purpose statement.<\/p>\n<p>So yes, simplification is kind of like making it easy but that\u2019s a great thing for anybody to do in their business. Well, I tell people, go back and simplify. They say, \u201cSimplify what?\u201d And my answer is \u201cEverything, everything that you can possibly simplify, simplify it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Here\u2019s what I have gotten\u2026I have had some frustrations with this area and I\u2019ve seen this a lot in working with other people who were trying to simplify their messaging. That is just doing it down to those few words like you\u2019re talking about without becoming too abstract or confusing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, because you sure don\u2019t want to be confusing. You know, the first mission I think in a lot of communication, and this applies to your employees, to your customers; is number one, they have to understand to what you\u2019re talking about. They have to get it. My gosh, I looked at my own website, this was about four years ago and I just look at it through my hands up and I thought, \u201cYou can\u2019t even tell what business I\u2019m in from this thing. This is so convoluted, so abstract, and so complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve kind of boiled it down to, for me, I can have three paragraphs describing what I did and I boiled it down to, \u201cI help leaders make great companies even better.\u201d That opens up a question, which is how do you that? How does that work? But that\u2019s fine. On the front end, at least I w ant them to get that he works with leaders to make their companies better. They may not want that. I may not be a good match for them. That\u2019s fine, that\u2019s okay. I don\u2019t want to be working with the wrong people and they don\u2019t want to be working with me.<\/p>\n<p>So you bring at such a great point. You bring at such a great point because if there\u2019s not clarity and that you know when I talk about simplicity, the very next step in that is to create clarity and that leads to the next step, which is so that you can create focus on what matters most and what\u2019s most important. The winners are not the people that do the most things, the winners are the people that do the most important things and do them extremely well and with great consistency.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> And they choose the most important things based on how they have simplified\u2026I mean, how do they choose?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway:<\/strong> Yeah, I generally look at a couple of things. The things that are most important to me are the things that will help me create the greatest value for my clients coupled with that will help my business grow. And then the third element which is that is something that I want to do because listen, Andrea, I have been caught in the trap so many times.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, this is classic because I\u2019m constantly telling people not to do this and I was the guilty as one in the room. I\u2019ll put it this way, don\u2019t get stuck doing something that you\u2019re really good at but that you don\u2019t want to do. I have gotten stuck doing things that I did well and there was a market for it and I didn\u2019t want to do it. It wasn\u2019t fun. It didn\u2019t make me happy but I was really good at it and it was making money. So I got caught in that dumbo trap and it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s hard to give up something that\u2019s working.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Oh definitely!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: It\u2019s taking me a long time but I\u2019m starting to get the hang of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: And so the reason why you shouldn\u2019t get stuck in it is?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Well, you know, a couple of things, you could get stuck in anything particularly today. You\u2019re putting yourself at some point in the future, and probably the fairly near future, and this goes back what I was talking about earlier, if you get stuck in anything, you\u2019re going to go out of business or your business is little by little going to go away.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing is, and I\u2019ll go back to the very personal _____ of it which is, I mean, come on, what\u2019s worth paying the price of doing something that you can\u2019t stand to do. Listen, I understand the real world, there are people that have jobs they don\u2019t love. It drives me crazy when I hear people say, \u201cOh you have to be patient about your job. You have to love your job and if you don\u2019t then you\u2019re a loser.\u201d Well, wait a minute. There are some people that have to support families and they got to have a job and it may not be the job of their dreams. Come on, that\u2019s just real life and that\u2019s about responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Having said that, I am a great proponent of doing whatever it is that you can do to bring fulfillment into your life and joy into your life anyway you can and for some people that means what they do after work, away from work. But certainly for an entrepreneur, for somebody that has their own business, come on, we\u2019ve got a leeway to try things.<\/p>\n<p>The trick is, it maybe something you want to do but there\u2019s another part of the formula. Is there anybody willing to pay you to do it? And there a lot of people that say, \u201cWell, all I have to do is be patient about what I\u2019m doing and I\u2019ll be a success.\u201d Yeah, if there\u2019s anybody that wants to pay you to do it, you will be but it could be you\u2019re passionate about what you do and nobody has the least interest in giving you the credit cards for you to do it so that\u2019s a problem. That\u2019s an indication you might need to shift a little bit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> So I\u2019m still curious about the simplicity thing because I interviewed your friend, Colby Juvenville, in episode 51 and he and I were talking about how it\u2019s hard for him to simplify or not necessarily simplify, because I might be talking about two different things, but I want to see how they fit together for you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Sure!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: But I\u2019m similar to him in that. It\u2019s easy for me to get a lot of plates going and I kind of enjoy spinning plates. I kind of enjoy having a variety of things going on and going on in my head sometimes. But then, it does, I think, become a problem when it comes to trying to simplify the message about what is the market message or the brand message or whatever because of so many different things.<\/p>\n<p>How do people who are kind of on that creative spectrum of, we\u2019d like all over the place a little bit but at the same time there\u2019s this necessary piece of needing to simplify in order to communicate and actually grow something?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah a couple of everything, and number one, I saw that you interviewed Colby. Colby is great. I like Colby a lot. He\u2019s a smart, smart guy and great of what he does. You\u2019re talking to somebody who loves nothing more than the next idea. Oh my gosh, I\u2019m like the classic. I\u2019m like a dog, squirrel. I mean, I\u2019ll have a great idea and I\u2019ll start to execute it but then I look up and go, \u201cOh but here\u2019s a new shiny idea over there and I wanna do that too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So for me simplification partly means discipline about understanding the difference between a true opportunity and a distraction. I would never advice anybody to not try new things. And if you are wired such that you love to have, as you said a lot of different plates spinning, great, do that. There are people that are at their most productive when they are doing it.<\/p>\n<p>Go back to Amazon. Oh my gosh, Amazon is getting into healthcare. Amazon is going to be into everything eventually and yet, Amazon still has to have some sort of unifying vision that makes all of these pieces work together. And I go back to what Amazon does; everything that Amazon gets into, they get into it to make something simpler or to make something easier, to make it easier to buy stuff, or to make it simpler to access healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>So you can have a lot of different things going on but you still have to simplify in your mind to the point that you can keep up with at all, that you can manage at all. As you said, and this is really important, simplify to the marketplace so that they get it what your brand is about. Because if they look at your brand and go, \u201cI can\u2019t figure out what she does, she\u2019s all over the map.\u201d That\u2019s not good for business.<\/p>\n<p>For me, I do a few different things but it\u2019s all now around effective leadership. And so I try to simplify the value of proposition but my delivery system, the way I deliver that value can take any number of different forms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Oh I like that. So simplify the value of proposition in what you\u2019re saying what you offer but you can offer it in many different ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway<\/strong>: Yeah, exactly!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: Yeah, I love that. Oh this is so good. I\u2019m so happy that you\u2019re here, Joe. And I am curious, if you were to take this conversation we\u2019ve been having and pull out something that you really think that somebody who has or wants to have a voice of influence. They want to make their voice matter more for a cause or inside of their business as a leader or even as a speaker, consultant; what piece of influence or advice you have around how they can make their voice matter for today?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway: <\/strong>There are a number of things that comes to mind and I just go to, I mean I have to do that, Andrea. I\u2019ve been in business a very long time. I\u2019ve got to work on those elements that you\u2019ve just sited all the time for me to stay in business because the business I\u2019m in has gotten way more competitive over the last few years. A lot more people doing it now, and my competitors, I hear people say, \u201cI\u2019m so good. I don\u2019t really have any competition.\u201d I think, \u201cGosh, what\u2019s life like in that planet because on my planet, I\u2019ve got tons of competition and they\u2019re so good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I mean, these leaders are so good at what they do. I have to constantly stay on top of it. So a couple of things about creating value and truly being a voice of influence and one of them is this is to be 100% you. You know it\u2019s funny, I don\u2019t do so much anymore but I used to work with executives on giving more effective presentations. The main thing I have to do with them was get them out of their heads about giving a speech.<\/p>\n<p>And I would say, please don\u2019t give a speech, don\u2019t ever, ever, ever give a speech just talk to them. You\u2019ve got something that you feel is important to say and if you don\u2019t, you shouldn\u2019t be up in front of them in the first place, but if you do have something to say that\u2019s important just talk to them. You\u2019re not supposed to be in a particular way. You\u2019re supposed to be you, 100% you, because people sense that and if they sense that you are fully present and if it\u2019s truly coming from your heart with what you\u2019re telling them then you\u2019re going to have more impact.<\/p>\n<p>I do think there\u2019s a lot to be said for what we\u2019ve been talking about in terms of getting clarity yourself on what you\u2019re core message is. I\u2019m not saying, it needs to be just one thing but you\u2019re core messaging. I\u2019ll put it that way, because if we don\u2019t have clarity on it then nobody else is going to have clarity on it. And another part is listening and listening on the front end.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t do a presentation unless I feel like I have absolute clarity on who I\u2019m talking to, what their concerns are and what\u2019s _____ for them. I\u2019ve been relate my message to that. It doesn\u2019t mean that I write something brand new just to suit them. That strikes me as kind of faking it.<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s the other thing, sometimes I find out that I\u2019m not the right match and I want to know that, because my gosh, any of us that have been in front of the audience and we got that realization of, \u201cUh uh, I really shouldn\u2019t be in front of these people.\u201d So I want to know on the front in, \u201cAm I the right match and how can my message match up with their concerns? How can I be relevant in such a way that truly creates value?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Being relevant with and also being 100% you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> Great, I love that! Well, thank you so much, Joe. I really appreciate you taking time to be with us today in sharing so much wisdom and so much inspiration for us as we move forward with our own voice of influence. Thank you for your voice in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway:<\/strong> Well this is\u2026can we go this again tomorrow?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea:<\/strong> I love that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Calloway:<\/strong> This is fun. Thank you so much for having me. Listen, I don\u2019t ever ask people to agree with me but I hope that what I say at least provokes a thought or two. If I\u2019m a catalyst for people thinking about what they do and what they want to do and what they should do then I\u2019m happy. I hope we were a catalyst at least.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrea<\/strong>: I\u2019m sure. I know that that is the case so thank you so much!<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>END<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are new businesses, thought leaders, influencers, coaches, consultants, you name it coming onto the scene every single day. So, how you can stand out and make sure your business, and voice, is relevant in a crowded marketplace? This week&#8217;s guest is going to tell us exactly that! Joe Calloway works with leaders to help [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[276],"tags":[491,180,250,480,229],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-executive-leadership","tag-leadership","tag-message","tag-public-speaking","tag-speaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/58-Joe-Calloway-Voice-of-Influence-Andrea-Joy-Wenburg.jpg?fit=810%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6jZPB-Mu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreajoywenburg.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}