Jeff Ross (00:02.274)
Yeah.
G'day guys, how are going? It's Geoff Ross here, your caffeinated kangaroo, your laptop lifestyle dad. And this is our social selling and AI mastery podcast. And I've just wanted to put together this podcast to interview awesome experts like Joe that we're going to introduce you to in a second, to be able to help fill the gap, especially when it comes to the AI social selling space. Yeah, in here in Australia, especially there's not too many resources.
to be able to help people to get access to this amazing knowledge base that's out there with all these awesome thought leaders that are really pioneering and opening up new ways and new pathways for us on this online marketing world. Guys, I'm here in Australia, got Joe over here in America, and just awesome. I met Joe through an awesome networking opportunity, and we just hit it off like a house on fire. Joseph has his own podcast called the Joseph Graham Show.
And, when it comes to sales, when it comes to learning social selling aspect of it, or I really feel that, you know, just my, short interaction that I've had with Joseph, he knows his stuff. You know, he's definitely one of the experts in this space. So really looking forward to this interview, Joseph, thank you very much for saying yes to jump you onto this call with me today. Thank you for having me, Jeff. It's an honor and I've loved watching your content and getting to know you better for sure. you.
So I might always love to start with people's story, specifically their hero's journey tale. So can you share your journey with us, dive into the personal, the professional path that led you where you are today? Sure. It's funny. So I grew up in Midwest America where you're supposed to get one job, marry the girl and just do the thing. And that's what I thought I was going to do. So I like, started working at a factory, going to college. were taking me through the program and all of a sudden I got laid
Jeff Ross (01:59.278)
I have a family, have two young kids and I had no job. And I'm like, crap, what am going to do? I literally fell into sales. This is 27 years ago, knew nothing about it to the point that my first time I went and presented to anyone, I literally told the guy I was presenting to, I can't do this. And he goes, dude, I like Home Depot. I got the card. I'm going to buy it. It's all good. Which gave me that epiphany moment of sales is not about me. It's about the customer. But when you're first doing it, you don't know. Like I was trying to do a flip
a flip chart for gutters. You don't need a flip chart for gutters. You measure it. You say, here's the price, you know, but at the time I was young and green and then just going through that crazy journey of I did heavy equipment sales. did door to door sales. got into corporate America and you'll see some of black stuff in the background. won multiple awards in the B2B space for sales, but the epiphany moment like anyone else's is that I literally had to get put into that situation and then realize
If you reframe sales and it's not about you, just helping your client, your customer. It's so much easier and you win. then that whole icky stress that I know, I don't know if it's the same in Australia, but in the U S sales people are not always looked on as kindly. But once you realize when you can shift it to where it's my business, helping your business, it's game over. That's like a super short version of it, but like 20 year overnight success. Yeah. 20 year, I just love that.
Yeah, look, it's very same here. We have a thing called here, the, the tall poppy syndrome, especially too. And, and, you know, people say to me all the time, I hate sales. I hate being scammy. I said, well, I don't do that either. You know, I hate that too. You know, I'm a solution creator. I just help people solve their problems. And, and, when you frame it that way, you know, it's, it's pretty cool when you can help someone, you know, get out of sucks bill and get them to awesome town.
Yeah, well, I mean, because what you do and I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, but entrepreneurs, especially they have this great idea. They're on the creative side, right? But they're like, I don't want to sound like I'm sales day. I don't want to do that. But you have the vision. You have the plan. You have the stuff that can help the people. So I just reframe them like Jeff, here's the thing. Don't sell them. Tell them your vision. Tell them how you can help them. Because if you give them enough value, they're going to pay you. They're going to say, hey, Jeff, how much does this cost to be a part of it? Because you're selling who you are and what you can do for
Jeff Ross (04:15.778)
because this is your passion, your dream, whatever it is you are as an entrepreneur. And then like with business people are coming to help their salespeople because they're afraid to pick up the phone or do all this stuff. I'm like, look, I know now it's not a no forever and they're not rejecting you. They're just rejecting the product or service maybe right now because you haven't earned the right. it. Love that. It's all about how you frame it and essentially get out of your own way. Right. Just, just follow the actions. But love it. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. you say?
no, I was going to say, I think so many times we just get in our heads because we really think we're more important than we are. And don't take that wrong. You're important, you're valuable. I'm all about getting that set too. But in the sales process, it's just all about them and helping them. That's the thing that once you fix that, it's easy. Yeah. Yeah. So let's tackle a challenge. So overcoming obstacles.
Could you tell us about a significant challenge that you've recently faced and how you navigated your way through that to find a solution? Sure. Well, like even for.
My mind goes two ways here. I'm just going go with the person that hits my head. Me going from corporate America to actually just helping people online. So here's the thing. I've made millions of dollars for businesses. When I say I was a top closer, I was a top closer. Like they're still making millions off of what I've sold, but because we all get in our heads and all, when I go to price myself, like, should I price this? Should I do that? Because you're that whole value versus cost first. Yeah, well, that was for the business and that product was great.
And just getting in the right groups and around the right people to fix my mindset with it too. So that when I bring value to someone, it's okay that I charge them for that product or service. And I think a lot of us have that issue because when I'm selling for a corporation or I'm selling for a business, they have to implement it. Now, as me implementing it, it's trying to out what is that cost versus value? What is it that I'm bringing enough to come in? But my wife helped me with this one. She goes, you think it's simple. What you do is not
Jeff Ross (06:17.666)
So first and foremost, man, you're listening to this, is a life laptop lifestyle, dad's show. If your wife is giving you some insight, you might want to listen. That's probably going to help you. can throw it out there. But once I realized that was like, holy crap, she's right. Like what's simple to me is not simple to them, but there's things that you do Jeff that you probably think is simple. I'd be like, I do it. can't do that. What are you talking about? And I think just reframing that again, I do a lot with mindset. I know it's I'm a sales coach.
But in reality, I help people get their mind right and their stuff set. Cause then I can just put systems of processes in places because we have to make the calls. have to do the email, we have to fix ourselves first. Yeah. Yeah. No, as a coach, I to have a relate to that. I always get people, find myself in conversations around life and, and, mindset and even the heart set of it all. And the, the processes and strategies really is just 20, 30 % of it. So I find that all the time. So yeah, totally connect to that. So.
Hey, I'm curious, like are you playing around in the AI space at the moment with anything to do with social selling? Yes. So I've used the boring chat GBT. I do use that. I have a friend, his name is Jacob. He's out of Germany and I'll give you a connection. He is my go -to guy on a lot of stuff like that because like he was in AI before it happened, but I use simple things. Like I use a voiceover IP program called Dialpad where it will give me a summary
the call. So like when I give the person a call, right? Like we're having a call right here. If we're on that platform, it literally will give me a summary of what we talked about. Then it will give me the bullet points from that conversation so that I can come back to it. And all I to do is type Jeff Ross in my thing. It's amazing. There's so many different things with AI that's phenomenal. And it's not the end of the world. Like I grew up in the nineties. I was born in same time. So I saw Terminator and all that stuff.
But it wasn't, it's not that it's just simple things that make your life easier. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Right. It's not that it's AI is going to take away jobs. It says people who learn how to master is the ones that suck the, the, the computer back in the seventies, you know, people thought the computer was going to take away jobs. It wasn't, it was just made things more efficient. So what is it? You know, what was that tool court against a dial iPad? it a dial
Jeff Ross (08:32.108)
It's sort of the voiceover IP program called dial pad. We've all heard of chat, GBT. use it for grammar and stuff, but dial pad is just like a voiceover IP solution you can get. there's so many different little things you can do to enhance. There's a bunch of CRM systems out there, different things that all it does, it shrinks time for you and helps you get better and faster so that you can touch more people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. So with all of this conversation at the moment that we're on, so how do you envision the future of AI and, and what impact do you believe that we'll have on the world?
it can go either way because people are people, some people are going to use it for good. Some people are going to use it for bad. I think AI is a tool and whoever puts the inputs into it is what you're going to get out. Just like with our life, with business, with anything we do, we control our inputs. So AI is going to be used, how you use it for good or for bad. Yeah. Once again, it's just a tool, not really a replacement, right?
Is there any sort of real key leaders or influences that yourself, you personally follow and watch and, and, what's some of the most significant impacts that they've had on your journey right now? Are you talking AI or business in life? What's question? More specifically to probably sales or AI, yeah. Social selling and AI. Okay. Cool. I just want to make sure. Cause I have different people I've filed for different
Yeah. Again, my buddy Yaken because on the AI stuff, he has a course, he has a bunch of stuff that he's been doing before chat GBT, which tells me that he was invested before you get, cause I'm sure you've gotten the email. I'll teach you chat GBT. And it came up three weeks ago, bro. You don't even know chat GBT, you know? So I follow him on social selling. Probably Steve Sims has a really good program with that type of stuff. Just, I like how he operates. I've known him for a long time. He's been on my show. Great dude.
And what I mean by that is this, he's a hundred percent himself all the time. You don't get one Steve Sims here and one Steve Sims here. Cause there's sometimes people get online and they'll be like, and you see him online. you meet him in person like, wait, you're not the same person. another buddy I follow his name is Gabe Arnold. Phenomenal dude. He's had a marketing agency for 20 plus years. Very solid, very down to earth, very again. I'm into heart centered guys that are authentic and will help people first that type of approach.
Jeff Ross (10:47.086)
If you are a prima donna, like look at me, showy person, we're probably not going to vibe well. It just doesn't work for me that way. And then the last person I mentioned, I just had him on my show as well as James Dixon, James El -Troy Dixon. He has a show on YouTube, well a YouTube channel with over 200 million downloads, which is about motivation and social selling and public speaking. All three of the, all four of those guys are phenomenal. Yeah, I love
So I've got a couple of questions for you. just want to pick your brains about, know, cause you've done what, how many shows now on your podcast? On my podcast, 189 have dropped and I've recorded close to 200. Wow. That's an awesome milestone. Hey, you definitely are someone I'd love to pick your brains about that. Some of them just launching their own podcast to it. More importantly though, as a dad, you know, I've got three young boys and, my two oldest, at 12 and 11.
You know, so I'm always looking to pick entrepreneurs brains and, know, let's say you were in my position. were three skillsets that you would help your boys, you know, help Harrison and Lachlan. What would be three skillsets that I should focus on to help them to, to master now for, to help them to get into this world. And, you know, cause Harrison's got a heart to be a YouTuber. loves Mr. Beast and you know, all that sort of thing. So what would be three skillsets to help them to master and achieve?
I would say I'm going to caveat this because every kid's different. have three kids as well. My oldest daughter is very into the arts. She's very hand -tied, like that type of stuff. My son, my male child is going to be an electrician. He's already doing it. And then my nine -year -old, she's just loving dance and all. So each kid's a little bit different, but there are certain things that she wanted to do. And this could come across wrong, but I treat my sons a little bit differently than I treat my daughters. Not that I don't see them as equal, but they're going to face things differently. That's just how my mind works. Sales for
Either one, because everything's a sale. This is where I actually agree with Grant Cardone. Everything's a sale. Whether or not you're trying to sell someone, reconnect it, that's a sale. Me talking to the audience, them listening, it's a sale. It's not like a bad thing. It's just you're making the building the networking and sales. So sales and networking would be the first thing I would want them to know. Two, kindness. There's such a lack of kindness and empathy in the world.
Jeff Ross (13:03.282)
not judging people just from what someone else has told you or an outside appearance, but actually getting to know them and understand where they're coming from. Because I grew up in the Midwest, so I don't always understand. Like I live over here on what they call the West Coast now, because I'm in Arizona right on the edge of California area. And it's just a different culture. It's fine. It's just you have to be open to get different cultures, different groups. Like I talk to people around the world, but a lot of people get caught in their one little boob of this group.
And then thirdly, for my son, thirdly, a little bit of ambition because right now with all the GenXers and all the people that don't have ambition, if you have a little bit of ambition, you can go super far. And with my daughters, empowerment. And I'm saying it this way because with women, a lot of times when I go to like networking events and see all the stuff and there's like 60 to 70 % women at these events and about 20 % women speakers. So empowerment meaning giving them a voice to
be the person they want to be. Again, all those could, that could go back and forth between the two, but sometimes I just look a little bit more in detail at, if I was at that age and I was my boy, I'd want to be a little bit more ambitious. I mean, I am ambitious, but like, because you could just run the table because of it. And then now I want my darts to feel empowered to do what they do and be the creative people they are. And I think it's just men and women think differently. Yeah.
I think the common denominator there is, is, is focusing on building up self -worth and self -love and, and just nurturing their gifts from there, right. As a, as a dad. Yeah. Love that. So someone who's produced now 200 episodes with, with your podcast and I'm just starting, you know, if you had your time all over again, you know, what would the top three things that you would, you do now starting out, like what would be your suggestions for me to tell me to launch this podcast?
Start off and start early. Don't get in your head. Yeah. Don't worry about having the right equipment. I started my episodes with a headset and a HP computer. Not the nice computer you have here. Not this nice. I like a gamer head, like the big old gamer headset. I was talking to multimillionaires with a big gamer headset and they didn't care. So just start off and start early. Find what fills your heart because it is what you're creating. So you don't have to have rules.
Jeff Ross (15:24.398)
You don't have to do your five questions and this is how you do it and this is how you flow. Find what works for you. I'm a salesman by trade anyway and I do sales coaching so thus me just asking questions made more sense to me having a list of questions so asking questions off that. And then third, don't be afraid to ask the big names because if you ask, most people want to help you. Reach out. I've had some big hitters on not even knowing I wasn't supposed to ask them yet because I guess there's some, you know, the little made up rules. Until you have 50 episodes, you can't talk to people.
I was having them like the seven and 15th episode. don't remember which one's those are, but like, I'm just threatening names out. But if you go looking through my thing, I had a lot of people that were pretty high up there and good even super early on. And then the other thing, don't worry about perfection. Worry about impact. Because you're going to make mistakes.
Your first 10 episodes are going to suck. doesn't matter who you are because you're just not comfortable with it. Just like my first 10 sales calls suck. My first 10 swings of the bat for baseball suck. My first 10 shots for bats. My first probably 10 attempts to get a girl to say yes, probably bombed. You know, it's just learning and growing and you get better and you adapt and you grow. And a lot of people with podcasts like to watch The Journey because typically they'll listen to your first podcast, go listen to your last podcast and they'll kind of pick in between and see what they
Yeah, love that. Well, well, hey, thank you very much for being one of my first 10 and helped me to break this ground. So I appreciate you. So a lot of our, our community here with the laptop lifestyle dads, you know, they're essentially I'm involved in it heavily as a travel ambassador in the network marketing space. And, and a lot of people I'm helping in the, in, the attraction marketing, social selling and teaching him how to leverage AI. So our mission statement for the laptop lifestyle dads is to help work all at fathers.
transform them into laptop lifestyle dadpreneurs, teaching them how to make at least $10 ,000 a month online so they can become the fun vacation dad, fueled by dad jokes, of course, and so they can focus on making memories with their family. So, you know, that whole teaching people how to make money online, right? So what's some advice to the struggling entrepreneur, the ones who are just getting started, the ones who feel stuck in their online business? What's one piece of advice that
Jeff Ross (17:41.868)
you'd offer, especially regarding to leveraging sales and even the AI space as well. Be intentional. You can only control your input, meaning that you don't know what message you're going to send out. It's going to affect or help who. So you have to keep sending out different messages, trying different ways from reels to videos, to lives, to long form, to short form content, anything you can do to get it out there. Second, understand you're enough. Once you do
You're done for the day. You moved your needle. Go to the next day because this is a marathon. This is a long game. No one likes to hear this, but anyone that tells you that they can make you a millionaire overnight or in the next 30 days, probably is full of crap. Because it just takes time to build. You had to build your brand. You had to build your network. You have to get people to like buy in or like and trust you so that they'll buy from you. So there's that. Third, you already work at Holix. You already tried to do two things. Don't lose your family and don't use the excuse I'm doing this for
Make intentional time for them each and every week. Because I've fallen into that trap. I'm sure Jeff, you probably falling into that trap too. Where you're going, you're going, I'm building my business. I'm doing my day job. I'm building my business. And then you look back and go, I haven't taken my wife on a day in a month. I haven't spent time with my kids. And you can't say that you're doing it for them. If you're not spending time and effort with them, you're doing it for you on your stuff. Yeah. 100 % agree with that. And that's why I've actually had to myself, you know, being that workaholic
I've had to really get structured in my calendar. You know, I put, I take my sons, you know, one at a time, I'll go fishing for the afternoon with them, you know, on a weekend or, you know, and I take Sarah for, you know, for dates and, we intentionally put, you know, travel into the mix to make sure that we are focusing on those memories, but it's all very intentional. It's all very scheduled and structured for that reason to have to keep that balance by design. So it's key. It's totally key. Cause if you don't do that, you're going to burn
Your family's not going to be happy about it. You're not going to be happy and it's not going to work. Yeah. Yeah. Now we can, money is something that we can, you know, we can, we can make more of, you know, we can find a way, right? You know, bring more money in, but it's that time that that precious time that floats away. And, know, I look at my son now he's 12, my oldest son and what is what, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, you know, six years. If he stays to 18, like I left home at 15.
Jeff Ross (20:07.278)
You know, so what's that? That's, know, anywhere from four to eight summers left, left to really be able to bond with my boys so that, know, can grow up and be awesome adults. You know, when you look at it like that, four summers left, like pretty fleeting. Yeah. Yeah. I get you. I have the 21 year olds. I have the 19 year old and I have the nine year old. Here's, here's another quick little tip. This is more on just being a dad. So just talk about it. Date your kids when they're
take them out and let them talk to you about what they like. So like when my daughter was 21, she used to like Barbies and what is it? Ollie pockets and something. I didn't care about that, but you know I did? When I was there and I had the phone, I put my phone down, I flipped it over and I was intentional with it, which is two, three, four years old and now she's 21 and we still talk and have that relationship. With your boys, it's probably gonna be going and doing something with them because men connect by doing.
Women like the connection by talking. It's just another two things that just popped in my head. But yeah, it's so much valuable. I'm grateful that I've got boys. I don't have to try and work out the different dynamics and got three boys, but I know that, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Two older boys at the moment. Yeah. I intentionally go when we go fishing, like I potentially drive for an hour to get to that place because it's that side by side conversation for some reason.
you know, men, especially in boys, you know, we open up more when we're not looking at each other's face and side by side conversation. I find there's some of our most impactful conversations that I've had with my boys. Yeah. Yeah. It's a hundred percent true. Yeah. So before we wrap up, I love to put you on the spot. What's your best dad joke? I'm not great at dad jokes by any means.
Jeff Ross (21:59.33)
I don't have a good dad joke. That's all right. got one. I'm trying to, you give me one. I'm calling the lifeline in here. This is my gold one. It's one of my most favorite ones. I use it all the time. It is my lifeline. Anyway, I married my wife for her looks. Just not the ones that she gives me these days. Yeah, that's beautiful. That is beautiful. I like that. Cool. Anyway, Joe, it's been an absolute pleasure connecting with you, mate. And thank you very much for sharing your heart with us.
For our listeners who are tuned in, how can they connect with Joe Graham? Sure. And if you heard my puppy bark, sorry about that. She heard the doorbell ring. The easiest way is my podcast is the Joseph Graham Show, like you mentioned on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X and threads. I'm Joe Graham Real. And then on Facebook, the Joe Graham Show is the easiest way to catch me. And it's me. I don't have a VA right now. So if you send me a message, love to...
chat with you and see if I can help you out. absolutely. Pleasure, mate. And thank you very much once again for being my very first one to cut my teeth onto essentially and get going with this. I absolutely appreciate you in that space. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you very much. And we'll call that a wrap. Thank you. Appreciate you.