Blaze Your Own Trail - S3:E4- Becoming a Master of Emotional Relevance with Alon Zaibert

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

About Alon: You know how sometimes you meet someone and after a few seconds you just FEEL there is something there? You can tell there is a connection, an energy of sorts? Well, this is how I am all the time. I feel the room, I read people, I sense the energy and act upon it. Along the years many people have asked me, hey Alon, how do you THAT? For me, THAT was natural but for others not so much. So I spent a couple of years analyzing THAT, breaking it down, learning about it, from a psychology standpoint, from a scientific angle, and figured it out. I call it - Emotional Relevance. And now I teach and coach executives, sales teams, customer relationship managers how to use Emotional Relevance when building relationships with their new and existing customers in order to increase their closing rates, grow customer retention level and boost loyalty. I truly believe it is time we inject more humanity into the corporate "dance" we've been taught all these years and challenge ourselves to do what we NEED as humans - be vulnerable, share feelings, be personal. Underneath that corporate attire we all are social creatures who crave the hug, the sense of belonging, the connection so why not? I have worked with small start-up companies and huge multi-billion dollars conglomerates. Every team I was part of or managed, our difference has always been that emotional, personal touch. Not everyone gets it but they sure FEEL it. In this episode we discuss: Alon's upbringing His love for sports What he did after High School A tragedy that took place What moved him from Israel to the USA What he does today And more! Connect with Alon: Website: https://www.alonzaibert.com/ Connect with Jordan: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jordanjmendoza/ Do you need help with your Marketing & Sales Strategies? Let's talk! https://linktr.ee/impulseconsulting Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you're looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. And I've got a very special guest today.

His name is Alon Zybert. And I'm going to give him just a second to give us a quick intro into who he is and what he does. All right, Jordan. Thank you for having me. That's right, Alon Zybert. I'm originally from Israel. And what I do today is I'm a business consultant. And I adopted another title, People Kind of Soer, I got it from a customer of mine.

I coined the term emotional relevance. You a couple of years ago. So I do emotional relevance consultants. something for business. And it means a lot of things, but basically I work on the more relationship and personalization in the business relationship, sales and customer success primarily. Awesome. Appreciate that intro. Let's rewind a little bit, right? You said you did mention that you grew up in Israel. So can you give the audience some context as to where exactly you grew up? And then a little bit about those adolescence years going up into high school and then we'll

carry on from there. Yeah, I grew up in the north side of Tel Aviv, close to the beach. You know, a pretty urban place. We weren't pool. We weren't rich. We were a pretty affluent area of Tel Aviv. So it was in that sense. I very quickly, at a sixth grade, I started playing basketball. I'm pretty tall. And that was pretty good. And I joined this club and I excelled in that. 16, I was already at the youth Israeli national team and kind of traveling a little bit to Europe for tournaments, and it was pretty amazing. You know, I was always on the borderline of TravelMaker,

because I think I was ADHD, not officially tested back then, but definitely ADHD. You know, in Israel, at 18, you have to go and serve in the military. Over there for three years, men go for three years, women go for two, so I went and served. Didn't do anything fancy or fighting or anything. I kept playing basketball. And I had a little dream, which is to move to the U.S., play basketball in college.

But looking back, I was more looking to run away in a way. That's a very brief highlight of my growing up in Israel. And so you just mentioned something that, you know, might resonate with a lot of people, right? Because I think a lot of people have experiences in life. And sometimes the instinct is to run away, right? It's to get away or get out of an understanding. environment. So can you give the audience a little context on, you know, what was it that put you in a position to start to have those thoughts? You know, first of all, I had a father that

was pretty strict and was pretty intense, right? My dad was a very intense influence in the house. Now, mind you, I have two brothers older and younger. We grew up in a pretty small apartment. You know, it's not like you have a backyard or whatever, three boys. And my dad always, you know, it's funny, you always kind of had a message to me, which was, I wanted to be as good if you can, but the subtext of it was, I don't want you to be better than me. And I didn't realize it until very late or later in life when he actually passed away. And three months before he passed away in the hospital, he died of cancer. So it was about a year that he was withering. Three months before he died, he admitted to me that he saw me as his biggest competitor in life. You know, it's

pretty shocking. It's wow, how can a father look at you like that? But it also explained to me some things. So he would come and watch me play basketball sometimes and I would have a great game and score and we win and he would come to me after the game, wow, you scored 30 points and you did that, but I think you should pass the ball more than this. So I think you should do more of that. Now, mind you, my dad had never had a layup in his life, right? It was never an athlete or anything like that. So it was always those messages. And I think that's something that I really wanted to get away from

because it was intense. You can imagine living in a house with two brothers and your dad see you as a competition. That was one thing. The other thing is, bear with me here, Jordan, because I know it sounds a little patronizing at first, but there's a term in psychology called, don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Are you familiar with that? Yeah, I've heard that before. Look, I'm 6'4. I was an athlete, right? I'm pretty good looking, right? It's hard for me to say it, but whatever. And people judge you by the way you look. And I don't need to tell you that.

Whatever you come across to some people, and I would start noticing that I would go into offices or classes or whatever. Just be people. People will look at you in a certain way, and they will immediately assume that I'm cocky, that I'm super confident, that I am super successful. And while in the inside, I was battling with my... own demons. And one of the demons was also my dad who caused that lack of self-confidence in me,

because I could never be as good as I wanted to be, because I could never be better than him. I had older brother that beat the crap out of me and not just from brotherly loved, Jordan, some craziness in the house, real craziness. And I started reflecting when I was 17, 18, I started reflecting, well, I want to share something with you that is not a lot of people know about me. When I was 12, my mom walked in the room and found me with a gun to my head. And it was, my dad was traveling and my older brother just finished, you know, using me as a beating bag. And I think I just wanted more attention. I don't think I was going to go through with it, to be completely honest. Yeah, I grabbed my dad's gun. Back then had his gun in a freaking drawer that

anybody could get to, and my mom walked in and it was, you know, I never really talked about it until years later. I was 12. Anyways, so I ran away from all this, supposedly for myself as well, to try and almost reinvent myself or try to fix or change what people see in me. And I assume your next question is going to be, well, did they? And I'm going to tell you that, no, I just adopted it. I actually embraced it. I embraced who I was. And it was a whole. And it was a cycle and it took me years but eventually I embraced it and I think that's what helped me get to where I am today. Wow. Yeah. And I think what you said is a lot of times it's a long journey to get there, but embracing it is it's the real unlock, right? It's when you start actually being vulnerable and

you start sharing it and you start having these conversations with other people. For one, what I've noticed is you start to find out that you're not alone, right? That there are people that have experienced these things that you can really relate with, right? But in for two, you just have this weight that gets lifted off your shoulders when you actually start to embrace this part of your history. No, completely. I know you read a lot as well. Every podcast, every TED talk, every book that you read and talk about all these things, all of them talk about the whole, be genuine and be yourself. Until you actually go through it, you realize how impactful it is. And I think looking back, whether I ran away or not, for me to be by myself, for me to learn and struggle after I moved to the U.S. after I left Israel and to grind by myself and go through hardship by myself, I think that was definitely something that brought me to further understand who I am and accept it. I totally agree to what you just said here.

So let's give the audience some context. So you head over to the U.S., right? This is year one. So where did you end up starting this new life? And then how was that first year? I'm sure you remember it very, very well, you know, especially if it was a hard year, you're going to definitely remember what that was like. I had a relative in San Diego. Back then, you're so naive. This is 1993, right? You're so naive. Like, oh, America. I have a relative in America. They're going to have big cars and fancy houses, and they're going to take. pick me up at the airport and they're going to treat me like a prince. Right? And I joined this junior college over there, which is like a two-year college, to play ball because I knew somebody in Israel who knew the coach of their women's team in that college. And then I'll rent a place. I don't know.

I'll figure it out. So I go and I get to San Diego. First time in the U.S. My cousin was originally from Mexico. second cousin picks me up in a van in the airport and she's rushing. I'm like, why are we rushing? And I go in and there are some cakes in the back seat, Flan. You know what Flan is?

Yep. The way to our house, we stop at a few restaurants. She was struggling those days. She was selling, making Flan herself and selling it to restaurants in downtown San Diego. I have no idea. I don't know. So for about a month and a half, I stay at their living room. in an air mattress, right?

And every morning, her husband drives me towards downtown to his office, which is about 30-minute ride. I take from there the trolley at about a 20-something-minute ride, and from there, another bus to the school. Pretty quickly, about a month and a half later, I ended up renting a room at this older lady, right, and I borrowed a bicycle from somebody. I was in a state of just need to make it happen. Just need to make it happen.

So I started working at school, 6 a.m. in the cafeteria. And weekend, I would, you know, work with the custodians on getting the football field ready for the football match. And it's funny, I was on the basketball team, but I would finish the basketball practice. And I would stay to clean the gym after practice, right? To earn whatever. At weekend, sometimes I would work at people's backyard and cutting trees. I still have a picture of me with holding the first. five $20 bills, the first $100 that I made.

You know, I brought a little bit of money that I had to pay for the tuition. And that's it. I didn't have a car, obviously. I couldn't afford it. That was, you know, challenging, but I never looked at myself as miserable or anything like that. It was just what I had to do.

The thing is, three months after I moved to San Diego, it was an accident in Israel, four of my best friends got killed in the car accident. One of them was actually supposed to join me for the second semester, and that hit me. That hit me from many aspects. One, you know, my dad called me to let me know. And get this, Jordan.

He called me after the funerals. So I couldn't even make it to my best friend funeral, right? Now, I don't know if physically I could have done it because of the flight and the time difference, but I still to this day, I'm like, he didn't even give me a choice. He took the choice for me. You know, I got upset about that. Second thing is I introduced those four folks.

You know, I went for a trip a year before with them to the same place they went where they got killed on the way back, crashed into a truck. But it was also the first time, like in a substantial way that I realized there's some elements in life that you cannot control. And even, and I spoke to my best friend's mom back then, pay phone, collect call. And she said, listen, you coming back here and leaving school is not going to. to bring him back. I'd love to give you a heart. I'd love to sit with you and mourn with you, but it's not going to bring him back. So I stayed and I finished a year. Like I said, it was an interesting tough year. And during the year, I also got recruited to play for a school in Stonybrook in Long Island.

So now I'm moving to second year to the East Coast, Northeast, first winter of the Northeast, bunk beds with a roommate. Now you're going to sorority, fraternity school and your experience that now mind you, I'm older than everybody because I went through three years in the military. So the cultural gap was a thing. So in the middle of that year, I had a little bit of a breakdown. I'm like, I'm done with this. I'm suffering here. And I should go back. I don't have real friends. And thank God I had a girlfriend back then. But still, you know, it was really hard. And I remember a sentence somebody told me back then was when you go to the dentist, you know it's going to hurt with treatment itself. But you do it in order to make it better. And a football

football coach, for whatever reason, the football coach in 1994-5, one of the assistants or the football coach, Storybook, listened to this. I would love to connect to them because he took me to the side and said, look, finish the year, then see what you want. Don't leave in the middle of the year. It's going to look better in your resume. And I'm like, yeah, whatever. But then he helped me and got an R-A position, resident assistant position, so I could pay for a room and board that way. and I finished the year. After that year, I ended up going to back to the city to Manhattan for a private Jewish school called Yeshiva University,

which is one of the top business schools in the nation, one of the top 50. It was a challenge. Double curriculum, you study religion and all that, and I'm not a religious kind of guy. I'm probably more spiritual than religious, but it's almost double curriculum. So I ended up playing there, Division III basketball.

You know, I was already injured in my ankle and whatever. So I knew that I'm not going to be the next Michael Jordan, might as well, constantly here in school. So three years there, three amazing years there from all aspects. Again, you're by yourself, and there's no scholarships in Division III for athletics, so some financial help, we need to work and keep paying for whatever is rest. And to be honest, during the second year there, so basketball was great, actually. I had a great run, and I got to play at the garden, which was great,

and ESPN did a piece on us, which was great. So, you know, it was awesome, living up in Washington Heights, which was fun. But the one thing I think that happened during this time, for me personally, that kind of change taught me something about myself was I was working as a tour guide to make some money to pay for tuition. I remember vividly, you know, Jordan, when I talk about emotional relevance, there's science around when we go through an emotional experience, it's engraved in our minds, right? We remember to the T, like, we know exactly.

what we wore that day if something happened. Sometimes in my seminars in my speaking engagements, I asked people, where were you when the Twin Towers got hit? Because it's a big emotional experience, and everybody, of course, remembers people. I remember standing in front of the group on the bus and pausing. Like, wow, everybody's quiet looking up to me. They really listened to what I said.

But then I also started seeing, I have these sensitive antennas, if you may, that I can see who responses how to what I say and what is their body language saying right now? How can I apply to them specifically? And I started enhancing that. And it was a rush for me. It was amazing for me.

I found my calling, right? I need to be in the spotlight. I need to be there to impact. People started calling to the company I work for us. I want to go on your tour, but I wanted to go with Alon, which also got me to think about the experience itself. People crave experience, right?

This is what I do today when I talk to customers about business. You know, I wrote a blog once that customer service is dead. It's customer experience. You have to take your customer through an experience and hopefully emotional one as well. And hopefully a positive one as well. So basically, I got my degree from New York from this school graduated 98. Like I said, I learned. I loved the whole speaking to people and motivating people and leading people.

And then a year later, I moved back to Israel, decided. to go back and met a girl in the U.S., Israeli, and moved back, got married, had a kid pretty quickly, and somehow ended up in the software world. And a few years later, moved back to Boston. They spent four winters in Boston. After four years, started my MBA in Babson, Massachusetts. But it was kind of, ah, we want to go back,

and our kid to have the go through first grade in Israel and kind of grew up in Israel. We decided to go back. So I never finished my MBA and moved back And somehow about a year and a half, two years later, I started a small startup company in the travel industry. The neighbor of mine had an idea. They came to me. They said, here's some money, go figure it out. Basically, that's how it was. And I started a company, raised funds. After three years, we had some traction in the U.S. So moving back to the U.S. The Wandering Jew,

Gordon. Definitely been a journey, right? I want to rewind a little bit. So, you know, the unfortunate deaths of your friends. Now, I'm sure you've thought about this, but if you would have been in Israel, you probably would have been on that trip. No doubt. Absolutely. Right? Right. And so there was a bigger purpose, right? And you've figured that out over the years and with through a lot of trial and error and hustle and grind and hard work, but you are here for a reason, right? You're here to help add value to other people through what you do, right, for a living. And so it's one of those kind of serendipical. things that is very, very bitter, but at the same time, you know, you could have been there. That could have been you in that situation.

Look, man, you're making me cry right now, and I don't like crying. It's pretty amazing, right? The four of them drove down to the south of Israel, and then on the way back, that's when the accident happened. They filmed themselves through the weekend, partying and having a great time, videotape, the whole thing, until to the point where the crash happened. So the video was then available. They made a movie out of it later, somebody in Israel,

became really, really famous accident in Israel because the way it happened. A year before that, exactly, the four of them myself, went to the same city in the style of Israel, videotaped ourselves. I'll tell you more than that, Jordan. We drove like maniacs super recklessly. We could have crashed as easily the year before.

But to your point, I mentioned earlier, you know, two of them were in my class in school, in school. We were good friends through there. One of them was like my best friend from childhood we grew up and through basketball when he became good friend. But he didn't go to my school. So I introduced them to my gang in school. I introduced them to those two folks. And then the fourth one was brought through him, through my best friend, childhood from his military base. Right. So he introduced him to the mix. So in a way, I kept thinking how I brought them together. And And obviously you go through the whole, yes, I should have been there, but man, had I not introduced them and, you know, was it my fault in a way?

And I have to tell you, Jordan, you just touched it and I immediately start hearing it. And it's still there. I mean, it's still there 20-something years later. And to understand that we're here for a purpose that we're here for something, I think looking back, again, you don't really know when you go through it. I think looking back, that year is what really started the journey for me to explore myself and what am I here for. It's not over. Jordan, the journey is not over for me. It's far from over.

I can tell you that in the last two years, I've made more progress in the journey than in the previous 23. But like a lot of things, you know, like I saw this video yesterday on LinkedIn, but this lady who talked about growing grass, they told them six weeks. And the first four weeks, four and a half weeks, they saw nothing. And frustration, you know, they put fertilizer and water, but you see nothing, four and a half weeks. But then it starts blooming, right? Only the last week, it actually grew. So for me, the last two years, almost that, right? Not knowing, only until two years when I really started looking back, really started analyzing,

really started, you know, identifying some elements. But I think looking back, that year in San Diego was what started my journey. about self-exploration and happiness, if you may. Absolutely. Thinking back to your journey to date, who would you say has had the biggest or most influential impact on your life? And I know you've had plenty of people in your life. You referenced the football coach.

You referenced your dad in a lot of aspects and conversations and friends. So is there one person that you can pinpoint that you would really think about that's made the biggest impact on you? I think when we were asked this question, I think our instinct is to think about positive impact. I'm just going to go with impact. Not positive, not negative, just impact. And I think it is going to be my dad.

He was so strong and he was so meaningful in my life, whether for bad things and good things, right? After all, he's definitely part of who I am today. Look, he beat us up, my brothers and I, which I would never do to my kids. I could never even think about touching them in a violent way. Yes, slapping on somebody's wrist in my vocabulary is a violent way.

So for me, there's a clear line there. My God, the stuff that he got out of me, the emotions, et cetera. But he also got me to value language, to value intelligence, to value people. He was a good guy. He was ethical. At least I wouldn't believe he was. So there are a lot of people along the way that definitely impacted me. you really force me to say one, I'm going to say my dad.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. And listen, when you think about what you do today, right, what would you like the audience to know is your mission for the work that you do? What I've gotten to know about you, you are heavily invested in humans, right? The human aspect and making sure that people get the most out of who they are. What would you tell the audience is your mission and what you stand for for business? Yeah, that's a great question.

You know, for years, everywhere I've been at work and whatever, I've been in sales or relationships, customer success, account management, which creates a relationship. And people who knew who got to know me and people watched my friends and watch me from the side, even just go to a Starbucks and interaction with people. You know, I would get people, my friends would come to me and say, how did you do that? How did you just make that person open up to you like that or laugh like that? or look at what you just did along, how you're impacted that environment there.

And I got to tell you that I was always looking to say, this is me, this is me. This is how I live. And I love making people happy. I can't tell you how passionate I am about getting people to smile. In the last few years, I started thinking, how do I formulate that? How do I teach that to others?

You know, today I have some customers to say, listen, I don't want you to teach me. I just want you to come. We'll pay you and do it for me. as a consultant or whatever. But then, you know, two years ago, I started writing about emotional relevance and I started researching more about it and learning about the old brain, crock brain, you know, the reptile brain, whatever different people call it differently, and neural marketing and all that science and psychology. And I realized there's, you know, the whole science around what I do and how I do it

and why. So I didn't really invent anything. But, you know, the last few years I've been also working for a large corporation, large company. If I could revolutionize something, especially in the U.S., man, be genuine. I mean, what do we need all that dance for at some point? You know, why are the being fake? Who are you really? Let's talk for a minute.

Who are you really? What do you want out of this business interaction? It's okay to say it. And yes, it's okay if I want to give you a hug and you're okay with that, right? So all the corporate bullshit and all those companies that are HR driven these days, my mission is to teach and work with people to be genuine and show and prove how it actually impacts their business as well.

And funny enough, or oddly enough, Jordan, this pandemic that we're all experiencing now is taking us all through an emotional experience that is actually forcing us to share more and be more vulnerable because we're all going to. through it. So the one good thing for me is that I'm seeing online and all over the place that people are actually now more open to share emotions, to share feelings. And I think deep inside and some science around it, people actually need to be hugged, not want to be hard, but need to be hard. You know, be genuine, like you said, vulnerable. A lot of books and talks around this and I'm all for it.

I just called it something a little different, and I formulated it, and I helped businesses. In any form of communication, email, phone call, face-to-face, doesn't matter. To inject some emotional, relevant elements into it in order to enhance the relationship with your customers. So level of stickiness go up, closing rates go up.

And thank God, you know, it's been proven to work in the last few years, So that's even better. But the bottom line, if I could personally, secretly, share Jordan, about making people happy. That's awesome. I love it. People are now feeling more okay to open up, right? And when you think about the last 90 days since a lot of places have been shut down and then we have this different states are opening up slowly and there's different phases.

But I think what's going to come from this and we'll probably start to notice even the months after things go back to the, new normal is that we are going to feel a lot closer to people that maybe we didn't have a relationship with before, right? Because we're on video at scale, right? If you're in a corporate environment, if you're in a consulting environment, if you're meeting with your family that's across the country or in another country, we're closer, right? Because the one great thing about being on video is you can actually see people's facial expressions in their body language. And you can see them when they're getting emotional, right? So I think that this 90 days is probably one of the biggest things to happen for a lot of people. So here's something to consider, right? This is

something to think about, to ponder real quick. You know how when a group of people go through a certain experience, they feel much closer, tired, right? If you are in a stadium, watching a concert, huge energy, amazing, right? And then let's say the next day, we'll meet you. We'll meet with three people. And you share the experience. And one of them says, dude, I was there as well. And he was at that section. You were at that section. And you share the experience. And the other two are saying, oh, my God, I saw it on TV. What are you thinking? You and the other guy. You're thinking, oh, you're experiencing something different. We actually experienced it. We have something in common. Now we feel closer. The entire freaking humanity has now going through one experience together.

it brought us all closer. You know, so when I work with my customers, I teach them how to take the customer through an emotional experience so that they go through something together, which gets them closer. And then you can trigger it again and again throughout the relationship. Okay, so I teach them how to do it.

Also be aware of it, great. But we all went through one big, huge, unprecedented emotional experience. It gets us all as human race together. because we all went through it. You can't say, oh, I'd be into the concept. Or you talk about the blackout in New York. So there's a research around that. People in New York, they've gone through the blackout together.

If you remember years ago, Blackout, 9-11, they've gone through some shit together. So when you travel, you find out somebody from New York, right? And there's something happening, and they share experience about that. Oh, we've gone through something together. It's like in the military. Right.

If you go through some experience with somebody in the military, You feel that much closer to them. So now the entire humidity got closer, which gets us feel, like you said, more open, more emotional. And so I think we should we auto leverage that. Yes. Absolutely, 100%. So I really appreciate you sharing your story and your journey. So I would love for you to give, you know, two or three tips to anyone that's going to listen to this episode or watch this episode that wants to learn more about,

emotional relevance? You know, what are some easy ways that they can take some action to dive into it, whether it's learning about it or whether it's, you know, reaching out to you for a consultation? What tips can you share? I like to summarize emotional relevance with the purpose is to be remembered. The entire science and research is around being remembered. And I break it under three elements. Stand out, make an impact, and be personal. Now, standing out, you have various ways, various ways to do it. Think of a scenario where you go to an interview, right? And there's 20 candidates, but they're bringing down to three.

And you're one of the three. And the hiring managers looking at the document, the resumes and cover letters and whatever. They all eventually kind of subconsciously look the same. They're written a little different, but it looked the same, right? He got down to three. He needs to decide if you made a little different, If you stood out a little by writing something different or by in the interview, you know, doing something a little different.

When you go crazy, they will remember you more. That's one. The second one, as I said, is make an impact. Right. The example I like to give is there's a famous ad on Starbucks and you see a hand holding a cup, a frappuccino, ice propitino. And it's Star Wars, something Star Wars, right? And the straws are like the light savers. Light savers, thank you.

right. And it's funny, when you look at it for three seconds and you imagine your hand touching the cup, you can feel your hand being cold in the middle. And if you look at it for three more second, you look at the straw, right? We did some research actually about this. People in their mind actually are hearing, that's an emotional impact. It got them to think about their experience, etc. And relates that, right, to make an impact. And be personal. That goes back to be you, be genuine, right? Share something, be vulnerable. I don't mind sharing my stories with you and use it if you have stories. Use it in your sales relationships. Use it. Why not? Share, open up. Make that connection with the person. Again, I'm not inventing anything new. I just kind of put it together.

And it proves itself. You remember the Coca-Cola campaign when they put the names on the bottles? Yeah. Coca-Cola knows emotional relevance, right? The retailers are really good. that, a lot of retailers. They did that. Think about it first second. How many people have gone through, let me ask you, do you remember when you went out to a store and looked for your name on the bottom? Yeah.

Yeah. And if I couldn't find it, I would go to the next store to try to search for it. And my name, it's, you know, Jordan is, I would say it's common now, right? But it's not like John or, you know, or Bill. Like, those are going to be more common. So I think for me, I knew that I probably wouldn't find it at the first place. and I already accounted for having to go somewhere else. The emotional experience you've gone through looking for it

got you that much closer to the brand, the Coca-Cola brand. They knew exactly what they're doing. They were talking to you personally. You didn't care that there were another 20,000 Jordans out there looking for the same thing. It was you. Coca-Cola knows me. It's the same thing with Starbucks.

When you go to order coffee and they say, Jordan, your latte is ready. Right? They're telling them to do it because our mind, right, when we hear Jordan, oh my God, Starbucks knows me. They know what I want, my coffee, right? It says Jordan on it. So be personal. And again, the combination is be remembered.

The easy part of course is go to alonzoid.com and just sign up for my blog. Call me, contact me, email me. I love to talk to people and share experiences and all that. Jonas, and I couldn't thank you enough for this conversation. I mean, you broke tears to my eyes. And even though it's not so hard because I am an emotional guy, I sell hugged in. I thank you for that, Jordan.

No, listen, I appreciate you taking the time and sharing your journey and expertise. And I know that there's going to be people listening that get a lot of value from this. So I'm looking forward to the episode airing, and I'll make sure all of your info is down in the show notes. Awesome. Thank you so very much, Jordan. Thank you.