Stop Chasing Quick Wins In Marketing

We break the instant-ROI myth in marketing, show how to choose operators who execute, and share a relationship framework that helps you connect deeper, faster. Along the way, we unpack red flags in fractional CMO deals, event tactics that compound, and a practical path to purpose.

• marketing is a long game with channel timelines
• engineer-to-matchmaker pivot and risk-managed runway
• why most agencies specialize in few things
• how to spot biased fractional CMO arrangements
• set expectations and align brand, message, and strategy
• amplified relationships model for fast, deep connection
• measuring relationship efficiency to guide effort
• journaling, space, and peer input for clarity
• conference tactics that attract the right people
• first impressions, right-left brain, and trust building
• five pillars check-in across mind, body, service, spirit
• curating entrepreneur dinners to scale community

Find Bedad on:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/behdadjamshidi/

 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behdadjamshidi_/

 Website: www.cjammarketing.com

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/

Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-edwardsconsulting/30min 

Transcript

Meet The Marketing Matchmaker

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Today's guest is Bidad Jamshidi. He's the founder of CJM Marketing Connector, an engineer-turned business strategist who personally vetted over 1,000 marketing agencies to solve one of the biggest problems in business today, which is choosing the right growth partner. After seeing firsthand how many companies got burned by hype, vanity metrics and misalignment, he's built the matchmaking system designed to connect business with operators who actually execute. Welcome to the hashtag ClockedIn Podcast. I want to get into it. So after meeting more than a thousand marketing partners, what did you realize most business owners fundamentally misunderstood about marketing?

Marketing Isn’t A Slot Machine

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Yeah, it's a great question. And thanks for having me on, Jordan. I think the biggest thing is one, most people think of marketing as in I'm going to put some money in and get an ROI really quickly, where marketing takes a lot of time. And so a lot of the stuff that we see online are the people that, you know, are the 0.05%, you know, where they were able to find a channel and that channel grew, but you didn't see like, hey, eight years they've been trying multiple channels before they found the one that took off rocket-wise. So a lot of times business owners are like, yeah, if I'm spending money, I want to get a certain ROI back. I'm like, yeah, but based on certain channels, that might work after three to six months. But marketing is a long-term game. And if you're not in it for the long term, it's just not going to work out very well.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, absolutely. Because it can be a very challenging one as you try so many different options as I've tried myself. And then you see some stuff works, some stuff doesn't work. And are you getting the return you actually want? Are you getting the things you actually want? And yeah, I mean, our whole life is about how do we spend our time doing the things we actually want to do? So for you, you you were an engineer, and then you you kind of transitioned, and uh work is a big commitment that we spend our time on. So, how how did you transition out of work? And did you do it as I quit my job and I just moved on? How how'd you think about that?

Engineer To Strategist: The Pivot

SPEAKER_00 2:55

No, it's I mean, great question. Um yeah, so engineer getting to marketing is a strange situation, especially when you're not trained on it in school. But when I used to work as an engineer, I used to be a sales engineer for a company named TELUS, very similar to like Verizon in the US. And a lot of my work when I was doing there, I was working with like businesses that are 50 to 1,000 type employer range, understanding like what's going on from a C-level perspective, IT perspective, and then building up technology roadmaps. Like that's what I did full time. And I got to work with a lot of cool customers, like large law firms, manufacturing, you know, the lushes of the world. And that's where a lot of my business consulting, sales, leadership, and technology experience came from. On the marketing side, though, when I kind of made that pivot, I started initially building up websites, Google Ads, and SEO, got to a point where I just liked doing 80 hour websites on the weekend. It wasn't that much fun. And I actually really enjoyed my engineering job. So it was never like I was building a business to get away from something I didn't like. And as I kind of got into it, I started passing off work to marketing agencies. I was like, okay, me, instead of me doing the websites, maybe the marketing agencies will do it. And as I started working with different partners, I realized very quickly marketing agencies didn't really understand business. And then businesses didn't really understand marketing. So there's always this gap. And it's not like I'm talking about like six-figure business owners or seven seven-figure business owners. It's like eight-figure business owners that also don't have that like understanding, right? And so I thought I'd play the matchmaker because as you put people in the same meeting, they didn't speak the same language. 93% of marketing agencies are good at nothing. Seven, seven percent are good at one to three things. And as you mentioned in the beginning, I've talked to a thousand one hundred and thirty-three different marketing agencies and experts. So I feel quite comfortable saying those kind of stats because I've gone through it. And all I do now is I become that matchmaker. So I kind of went from like that engineering world, understanding business and matching people technology technology to I didn't realize building a business where I still understand the businesses, but now I'm matching them to marketing agencies and partners and providers to bridge that gap.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, that's incredible. It seems like a super niche thing. How do you even I mean, I understand that you started passing it off, but when did you start to see it as a viable option outside of your current job structure?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah. I mean, when I was working full-time as an engineer, I was a senior sales engineer. And as I was passing work off, like understanding what the business needs and go through, well, you need websites or paid ads or SEO. All I had to do is just like have a couple agencies and make referrals to, right? And as I gave the referrals to them, I get referral fees back for you know, agencies would have paid their salespeople that percentage anyway. So I got it. So imagine me kind of working on the engineering front, getting paid my six-figure salary. And then on the side, I was just like talking to people and matchmaking. And I was like, cool, I wonder if one day, if I do this long enough, like I'll make more than I make as an engineer, right? And it took about three and a half years into it, where across that three and a half years, I was actually hiring people too. So like I was working full-time as an engineer. I hired someone to do my social media posting because I didn't want to spend four hours on the weekend to do it anymore. And so as the business started making money, I started reinvesting a bit of it into the business so that I would have people do like the lower quality tasks that I didn't want to do. So I could still be making six figures on the engineering side, be making some money on my business side, and just kind of keep growing that. About three and a half years in, I realized, oh, I'm hitting capacity. Like, like the profit that I made this year was more than I was making as an engineer. I had a team already underneath me, and I was like, okay, I think it's time to leave. Like, and I also had like a year of runway set up in the business, like just cash. I don't like risk, man. Engineers don't like risk. We like to prepare for every situation. And so that's kind of how I made the transition over time. Like it just told like the business itself told me it was time to leave.

Why Most Agencies Miss The Mark

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, and that's it. I it's so authentic, and I appreciate that because there's so many of us that are told quit your job immediately and go figure it out. The undue stress that you put your body under and you put yourself through is just unbearable because people don't realize how much of a challenge it really is. When you have that, hey, I need the money right now. What you don't realize is that you start to thinking very short term, in which case, if this doesn't deal, if this deal doesn't go through, I'm gonna you're gonna start to sound desperate, you're gonna start to misalign people. You're not able to interview a thousand plus marketing agencies, you interview three, great, let's do it, let's start throwing deals. And people don't realize that. And I I I appreciate you bringing that up. So, was that something that you've always wanted, or you just didn't want to go down that career path? Or what was it for you? Because it seemed like you enjoyed that engineering.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yeah, I enjoyed being a sales engineer, man. I I was really good at it, it was solving complex problems, it was always shifting and changing. Like technology is always moving. I always felt like in that engineering role, I had like a 10% understanding of the technology, even though I was learning it all the time. And that was more than enough to be able to help businesses because businesses didn't understand the technology as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Well, that's a really good, I just want to bring up that point that whenever anyone teaches anyone anything, if you have three percent and they're at a one percent, you can help them. If you're at a lot of people think they need to be at a 99% to help the one, no, it is literally that small of a gap. And if you can help someone with that, fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

100%. And and and technology is so broad, right? Like when you think about voiceover IP systems, you think about cloud systems, you think about AI now, right? Like there's so many things that people are like, I don't have the attention or time span to learn all this. Does someone know a bit more than me and help me move forward? Right. So that's kind of like on that front. Oh it's kind of how I was doing it.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

A hundred a hundred percent. Because everyone can do it for free, like, but at the same time, you you pay someone to help you go down the the list of what you can do much quicker. 100% valuable.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

100%. Yeah, and I and I enjoyed working in a team. I had a really good like leaders, like my director and manager were great. So I really enjoyed the engineering front of things. And even to this day, like if let's say if the business didn't work for five to ten years, I'd be totally fine being a sales engineer. There's no problem with that. Um, but there is a part of me that would always start stuff. Like I've been a personal trainer, I've built a financial course, I've done all this stuff in the past, right? Because I'm just like genuinely a curious human and I like to learn. Um, but this was one of those things where I was doing it and I was like, oh, this is a real niche. Like no one really knows about it. There's no such thing as a marketing broker. So I essentially created this business from nothing, right? And when people when people have gone through enough pain on the marketing agency front and if they've hired people and failed multiple times, and they hear, like, oh, you helped me fast track that, like, I will 100% pay you to help me. And so it just makes sense. But most people aren't solution aware that the marketing broker exists.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

That's interesting. I mean, I've done over 300 podcasts and I've never met anyone with the marketing bro. As soon as we talked, I was like, What are you talking about? Like, I don't get it. But it makes a lot of sense because it is really intimidating. It's like basically hiring someone else for your business. You're gonna talk to three people, they're gonna tell you the world, and then hey, I don't know if it's working, is it not working? What are the metrics to track? And it becomes very it could become a scary thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, like I was just talking to an eight-figure business owner earlier today, and they were just going through their groups and the people that they're working with, and they're like, Well, we have an email agency we're using for nine years. I'm like, that's great, that's awesome. Like, that doesn't happen very often. But then they hired this fractional CMO, and this person was like, I basically ran an agency and they were buying an agency, and they called themselves a fractional CMO with never really having any CMO experience. And so they were taking them and taking the business from all the other marketing channels and running it through one agency because essentially that FCMO ran that agency.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And I was like, Oh, it's just internal clients just passing the case.

De-Risking The Leap With Runway

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Internal clients, man, and there's it happens all the time. Like some massive red flag. Whenever I hear of like an FCMO has a marketing agency, I'm like, I'm I'm not interested in this relationship because you can't be, you know, like you're not you're not unbiased. You're not unbiased, you're gonna be sending everything to your agency, and but customers don't know to look for that.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Like people that are running your business don't know to look for that because you want to trust your people, so it's just trust them, go.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

That's exactly it. Yeah, and so he's like, Yeah, we went through a lot of pain. They put us in a really hard calf position. And he's like, Well, I also met this other FCMO agency, and I was like, uh-oh. FCMO agencies typically have like you know, like fractional CMO. Okay, yeah, a fractional CMO agency essentially is like a collection of fractional CMOs underneath.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Oh, okay, okay. Right? And so a big marketing agency on the back end, they all pass it.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

That's all like that. And so I was like, you need to be careful those types of agencies too, because instead of them costing you anywhere from five to twelve grand, they're probably gonna cost you fifteen to twenty because they have a lot of overhead to cover. And these are just things people don't know because they don't work in this space. Uh, they don't understand the fractional marketing CMO space or even the marketing agency space. Yeah. Yeah, I can go on tramer about this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

No, I hear you. I hear you. You know, but it's tough because a lot of us don't know what to do. There's too much, there's too many decisions to make, not enough time, and it can become very, very stressful for us. So when when people are going through this, how how do you help them understand and see it a little bit differently? Because I know that you're very into connection and reverse engineering connection. And because the the truth is, like, yeah, we want to help people, but at the same time, we also want people to understand where we're coming from and see us as a value add. But we also need to be salesy, but we also it's very it's a lot of juggling. So it's hard to, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah, I I guess for me, I mean, when like the word sales-y, I find like, yeah, if you're talking talking about like you know, car dealership sales type thing, or you know, you go to the mall and you're buying a phone, like there's there's a certain level of sales professional. And for me, I've always grown into like I've done obviously the the I used to sell cell phones and things like that. So I understand that part of sales. But for me, when working in a large organization where sales is based on relationships, it's a much different way of supporting your customers. So for me, it's all about like education, expectation setting, supporting where I can support. And if I can't support, just letting them know what makes sense. Um so I'm very relationship focused. And so when I'm jumping on a call, my my whole role, like let's say we're on a 30-minute call, like 25 minutes of that 30 minutes is just me trying to understand the business, where you're at, what you're trying to do, where you're trying to head. I got nothing to sell you until I go, okay, based on what you're telling me, like let's set expectations. Like if you're looking to do these channels, here's what's gonna happen. Versus if you don't even have like a lot of businesses, don't even have like a marketing strategy tied to their business strategy. I'm like, I can help you with better execution partners. That's not hard, but you're gonna hit a ceiling every single time. And so if you truly want to go about this in the right way, here's how we would approach by getting a marketing strategy set up first, which then is aligned to your brand strategy, your brand messaging. Because once you have that solidified, this is what the difference between like a seven and eight-figure marketing strategy is is like they're really solidified on what they're telling their audience and they know exactly who they're talking to and what they need to say. And most businesses think they have that, but they don't because they haven't done the research, they haven't done all that work. And it's why you see some of these big brands, like you see them everywhere, and you know exactly why they're targeting you, what they do, is because they've done this work versus just telling a bunch of things up the wall.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, yeah. No, it makes a huge difference because it it is not, it's not just us getting started. It's not just, hey, let's grab a phone and post something. It's getting really intentional about how you want to sound, how you want to show up, and how that's gonna transition with the customer. So for you though, I I know we talked about it in our prep call that you do you have a very interesting philosophy on how to how to connect with people, though, and how to make these deep connections. Can you tell me a little bit more about what's going on there?

Red Flags In Fractional CMO Deals

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, so so the stuff that we kind of talk about. So obviously CGM was the marketing side, and I've connected a bunch of people. And over the last seven years, I've probably met with about 4,000 people and connected with them. And some of the people that I've met are like 13 lines down a chain. So imagine like to meet this person, you're 13 connections away from me, and I had to meet 13 people that each had to connect with me in a certain way to introduce me to the next person. Yeah, those people, you know, make one or two connections and they call it, they call it a day. Um but when you kind of are a bit of a super connector, like a lot of what you do is build relationships. And so I built this model that I call amplified relationships, where I help people learn how to build deep connection in less than 10 minutes. Um wow. And the definition around amplified relationships is around like self-to-self connection, like truly understanding who you are and then being able to connect with someone else who also understands who they are. And you build this kind of amplified relationship based on the foundations of like your values, your beliefs, your life mission, who who you essentially stand for.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And so that's kind of the work that I've been doing. And I build a model around it where one piece is how do you attract people to yourself? Then two is once you attract people to yourself, how do you then structure conversations to go deeper, faster? And then three is once you've built all these connections and these networks, like how do you apply energy to that network, right? Yeah. How do I, who do I text message? Who do I give a phone call to? Who do I just send an email to? Who's part of my team?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Oh, interesting. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

So you break it all down. And then the final stage, which I always leave kind of for a workshop, is I've been able to actually put numbers to human relationships and say, like, based on the relationship you have with your wife or this other CEO, you have an efficiency ratio of, say, 52%. And if this is a relationship that matters to you, here's a ways that you can think about how to improve on that.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Interesting. Because I I think that's one of the biggest challenges for a lot of us is that it's hard. We know in business that if we measure and monitor numbers, we're going to improve, right? So we want to measure and monitor the revenue. We want to measure and monitor our bank account. Things will go up, things will go down. But as long as we're measuring, we can see it. Very hard to measure relationships, but you figured out a way.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, I have a model that I use and it gives you a good understanding of kind of like where you're at. And it's it's hard to explain over just like an audio call. But like if you're if you imagine like every person having like two nodes, right? Like I'm an engineer, I like to play with nodes. You have your self node, which is like the core. This is your primary node. This is you know, your beliefs, your values, the your life mission, and what your purpose is, the stories that have created who you are. Like that's in the then the primary node. And then off the primary node, you have this things I call the secondary nodes. These are things that you're just like interested in life about, right? Like for us, it could be podcasting, it could be business, it could be self-reflection and getting better at who we are as humans. Yeah. Or it could just be like we like food or sports. And so if you think of a human, you have the primary self-node and then a bunch of branches off of that that are essentially interests. And when you bring two people together, parts of their secondary nodes are gonna connect, right? Like we're gonna connect over food or we're gonna connect over business and stuff. And then the self-nodes will connect. And the deeper your your connection on the self-front, the more amplified your relationship's gonna be because it's the depth of connection that matters versus just the surface level secondary node connections all the time.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

So, Roman, can you give me an example of this? Because I I'm sitting here thinking about the audience and they're probably like, What how does it how do I apply this? How do I do this? What is the action steps?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, so okay, so if we're gonna like kind of play around with it and we'd have to walk through the numbers and stuff, but like let's say you have a CEO named Bob, right? And Bob has let's say three nodes, right? The first note is their self node, and this is how well they understand who they are. And I have a whole scale that I I can run from zero to a hundred. Um imagine like Socrates is like a hundred, right? And then zero is someone who's never really reflected on life. And so Bob has, let's say, a 15 out of 100% understanding on who he is, right? Yeah. His second node would be business, right? Like how well he understands business. And so you look at someone like Warren Buffett, he'd be at 100%. Jeff Bezos would be at 90%. So this guy would be, let's say, at an 80% understanding of business, right? So 80 out of 100. And then the final one is like the personal understanding of the people around him, how well he understands his family, his friends, his all those people, right? And you can say that he has an understanding of the people around him of uh 10% out of a hundred. Because you can never really understand other people deeper than you understand yourself.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

So if Bob understands himself 15 out of 100, that's the limit. And so he understands people at a 10% level. So you can kind of imagine Bob now as someone who's really, really good at business, but he doesn't really have a lot of self-reflection and he doesn't really understand the people around him.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah.

Education Over Hype: Setting Expectations

SPEAKER_00 19:01

And I'm sure we all know some CEOs we can name out that are typically like that, right? Yeah. Now, if Bob is wanting to connect with another CEO friend of his a colleague, right? And that CEO's name is Ryan, for example. Yeah, Ryan might have an understanding of self of 50 out of 100, he might have a business understanding of 60 out of 100, and he understands the people around him at about a 40 out of 100 level. You kind of get a sense for who Ryan is, right? Like he understands business pretty well, but he's also got a lot of emotional intelligence to understand the people around him and understand himself. And so when these two humans connect, right? Let's say they go to a restaurant for food. What's gonna when you when Ryan goes home and says, Hey, how is hanging out with Bob? He said, Hanging out, Bob was always great. You know, we talk about business and what we're doing strategically and blah, blah, blah. It's all great. Like we're always trying to figure out what we're building towards. And she goes, Well, how is he doing personally? It's like, we don't really talk about that. Like Bob doesn't really seem to want to talk about the self very much. Um, so we kind of keep away from that, right? That's the kind of relationship you would have there. And if you were going through my models, that's like a 45% out of a hundred relationships. Interesting amplified relationship efficiency ratio. And so you start thinking, okay, well, how do these two relationships get better? Right. So Bob can spend time doing self-reflection, understanding who he is, understanding the people around him, getting more in tune with who he is, right? And if he increases his self-understanding, he increases his understanding of the people around him. And so when these two humans now go on a lunch date or a dinner date or whatever it is, and Ryan goes home, he goes, Well, hanging out with Bob is awesome because we always talk about business and how we're expanding and growing, but we also talk about like our values and what we really want him like personally and how much he cares about his family and what's happening there. Like, I would do anything for Bob, you know, like because you're connecting with the self at that point.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, and it's a much deeper level. Like, it's interesting. You're saying all this, and I was talking to because I do coaching and I was talking to one of these guys, and I was just getting to know him, and I'm like, hey, like, what's your five-year vision? He's like, I don't know, man, like just more of what I'm doing, like more travel, more of this. I don't, I don't know, like whatever more looks like. And I was sitting there, and and then he's like, I got I got a something coming up, I'll talk to you later. And I was just sitting there and I'm like, he's never thought about this, he has no idea. So he's just kind of shooting from the hip in regard to what he wants to do or what he doesn't want to do because he doesn't even know the type of life he wants. Yeah, and that can be challenging for us. And a lot of the time we get very intimidated with people who are like, Oh, that person is materially successful, they must know the answers. And it's like, not exactly, not exactly at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

No, and it's interesting because you say that because like that's that's a miss of connection, right? Like, if if he had done some self-reflecting, be like, Well, I'm building this thing because I love this and I love to do this with my wife, and I love traveling because it's like there's so many more connection points you can really connect with someone because they've actually done some of the deeper reflection, right? Yeah, and you can get deeper. But yeah, and there's a there's another thing that I kind of figured and learned recently, just around like just humans and how they they focus on stuff. You know how everyone just talks about purpose and why purpose is important and etc. Like so I think like there's a couple different ways that you find your purpose, right? One is you think money's gonna do it, or reaching some sort of significance or status or fame, right? And what happens is what happens when most people hit the goal of the revenue goal or they hit the goalpost moves, it moves, or it gets to a point where it goes, oh, this didn't actually give me what I want. Yeah, so you sit there going, oh, if this was the first mountain and it didn't give me what I want and I'm not fulfilled, what makes me fulfilled? And that question starts leading you to what you really love doing and what your purpose is.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

I can I time out for a what's that? I just think the big challenge for a lot of people is that that question doesn't come up till too late in too late in life because they're constantly chasing this mountain of unfulfillment. And I I I just turned 30, but I'm seeing it happen with more and more of my buddies where I'm like, they're like, Yeah, I'm gonna miss the trip because like some work emergency. And I'm like, I wouldn't I I don't know that I'd recommend that.

Strategy Before Channels And Tactics

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly it. So some people have to hit a certain level and then realize that's not it. And then they start searching for the second month and the purpose level, the what matters in life, that kind of thing. And then there's other people like I think there's three scenarios. There's right now the second scenario is like someone who, for example, like myself, has made enough money in terms of like, oh, I make enough money a month. If I'm not happy with the amount of money or I don't feel the sense of fulfillment, more money is not going to solve that problem. So I start asking the question of like, what is purpose? Which is all around this amplified relationship stuff and teaching people how to connect deeper and understanding who they are more. And once you start doing that, you realize, oh, money doesn't actually really matter that much. Like money will come to you as you do your purpose, right? But it's like it's not the goal, it's not the thing. Um and this is not to say that the first person who builds a lot of wealth, for example, money-wise, and then realize their purpose, they can make massive impact because they also have a lot of money that they built prior to do that impact. The third one, which I think is like the most kind of like kind of like the most hardest one to like accept, is like someone who thinks that the money is gonna really help them get significance and things like that. And they're constantly working towards that, but they never really get there. So they never actually get to ask the question of uh, what is the purpose? What really matters? Right. And so they're constantly chasing to the end of their days, but they never really hit that amount of money where they get the free time to really think about what their next piece is. And so at any stage, though, I think it's always important to ask like what really matters to me, regardless of what stage you're at, because if you're always chasing for more, more, more, you're you're just gonna end up with, oh, this wasn't actually what I wanted.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Yeah, and then it becomes this interesting thing where you sit there and you start to realize, am I going in the right direction? And I think all this comes down to as the audience is listening, is we must pass and we must ask better questions. The better questions we ask ourselves, I think you're gonna get much better results. And instead of going, how can I get a promotion? Think about how is this gonna matter to me when I'm 80 years old? Like, is this important? And what I'm doing making an impact. And you'll start to realize that a lot of things that you stressed out about or thought were a big deal were just completely irrelevant.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Yeah, part of something.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

So is there any yeah, you go?

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I think I think just to add to your point, it's it's uh it's asking the right questions and then leaving space to actually answer them and let the the feelings and the thoughts come up. Because if you're just asking the questions and you go, cool, I gave it a one-word answer and walked away, that's likely not going to really help you. But if you actually leave the space to open up and ask those questions and really think about them, let them simmer, the answers will come up for you over time.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, and how how do you practice that? Because I just know a lot of people, I mean, it's what was I doing? I mean, I remember I was watching TV and they had uh commercials and they would run for two minutes. And every single time I would just grab my phone and I'm like, Jordan, you're not even letting yourself watch the commercial.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah, I mean, it's there's a few things that I do. One is I journal on it a lot. So if I have good questions to do, like journaling is number one, like just getting okay, this is the question. What do I fe think and feel about this thing? I love it. Two is then giving yourself space, right? Because the initial answer is the initial answer. It gives you a baseline. But as I'm going through the world and walking around and learning new things, I'm constantly like comparing of like, okay, is that baseline correct? Do I want to think about this a little bit differently? Now that my attention is on it, is are different thoughts and patterns coming up. And three, I talk to a lot of people, man. Like, so if I'm thinking about something and go, hey, I asked this question, and this is kind of how I felt. I'm curious, like, have you ever thought about this? And someone will give you their thoughts and ideas around it. And you go, Oh, I never really thought about it like that. And I found like one of my supermodels, which is like the connecting with people, that piece of connecting, like I love talking to my friends and the people around me because I throw ideas at them and they help me like like hone in on what actually matters. Because you get different perspectives from multiple people and you take it in, you filter, and you go, based on everything, this is what feels right. So I'm like, I'm taking different inputs in, and one of them is humans. You can use books as another thing, you can use podcasts as another thing. But like as you're asking the question, you're then creating an environment where you take certain inputs in and then being able to come up with like a more concise answer because you're now really filtering on what matters.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, I also think the iteration, too, where you're asking the right person the right question, like not asking the plumber, hey, what do you think about spirituality? Like they can give you a spiritual answer, or asking your spiritual person, hey, what do you think about business? And it's like they might know, they might not, but just asking qualified individuals is just a preface, I would also add there. Yeah, so for you, how has this helped you? Because I know you like you just went to a conference. How do you think about that kind of environment where you're moving very quickly through people? And by that I mean there's a lot of people. We a lot of us are going to networking events. Are they a waste of time? Should we be doing them? Should we not be doing them? Yeah.

The Amplified Relationships Model

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yeah. So I mean, I just went to a hundred and fifty-person conference just uh last week. And the way that I go into those conferences, I'm honestly kind of just very open. I know that I'm not gonna meet 150 people. That's impossible. And there's a couple of techniques that I will use, like just things like, for example, if there's an opportunity to stand up and talk, I'm gonna do that because then I can potentially be like, hey, this is who I am, this is what I do, these are what my values are, this is what my goals are, right? And you have 160 people listening to you, and they're gonna self-filter to who they want to talk to. So for example, if we did a whole round table thing where everyone was one person at the table is introducing everyone else. I volunteered for that because like this is a great way for one, me to learn about my table, but two, I'm gonna be able to speak and talk about who I am, and people are gonna put a face to the name, right? Yeah. So at the conference, people were like, Oh, I saw you with that really cool jacket that you had on. On the first day of every conference, I really I wear a cool jacket, something that stands out, because that's another thing because people will remember you. They'd be like, Oh, that's the guy who spoke and he was wearing that jacket. So it's like little things like this that I do. And then from there, I just let kind of like the event unfold itself. Like, I'll talk to people, I'll connect with people. Some people you'll connect with deeper, which is cool. Do the thing. And then there's some that you will just connect to at more of a transactional level, and that's totally fine. But you're I'm not sitting there forcing things, I'm just like letting things unfold as they need to unfold. Yeah, but I've done so many networking events that it's not like, oh, I need to make an ROI from this thing. This doesn't matter to me because that you never know what will happen in three to five years from meeting a certain person at a conference, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Well, a hundred percent. And that's why I think that's so important because it's it's that reality of hey, if I get to talk to two people, amazing. Like whoever comes my way, incredible. Because when we have to meet 150 people, we put a stress under ourselves that is just very unhealthy and you're gonna show up very inauthentically.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Yeah, 100%. And so I think it's it's just good to to know that. And then one other thing, like when you said, should we be networking? My biggest thing is like build the relationships before you ever need them, right? That's the thing. So I went to Emerge as an acquisition conference. I'm not looking to buy a business, but I'm there to build the relationships. And as I was doing that, I started getting ideas like, oh, I know a whole bunch of marketing agencies. Most people in this room want to buy a marketing agency. Could I just send an email and make people get introduced introduced, and then I take 2% of whatever the deal is? The answer was yes, right? Like, yeah, that was just me being in the room, like, oh, interesting. Like, I don't actually have to buy a business, but I could definitely be the connector for it and just be something I do on the side, like I can build a system around that, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:15

As a business broker, yeah. I mean, it's seems like a pretty awesome idea because the thing about that I try to do, and I try to bring in better guests and try to bring in higher level people. It when you get around higher level people, it gets you thinking differently, and you start to see what's possible. So going into that conference, you never could have thought about that. But as you're around it, you go, Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like I had I got to meet agency owner that's bought 23 different businesses and put it underneath his agency. I found a couple different people that have Holt COs and they've had a whole bunch of marketing agencies underneath them. And these are people with over a hundred million dollar businesses, right? Like now I have these people and they're like, Bay dad, whenever you have a business or marketing agency that wants to sell, send it by if we want to buy it, let me know, and we'll give you two percent. Like, never would have realized that that would be an opportunity without putting yourself out there.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, and it because it's funny, I've talked to some people where some people see the vision, and then some people are like you get the vision seen on you, and you go, Well, okay, I didn't know you knew what I was doing. I I've had that happen to me a few times where the guy goes, Oh, you do this, cool. Let's do this, this, and this. And I think that would be a good fit. And you're like, Do you need a call? Anything like the other guy took five times, like, you you really want to do this right now? And he's like, Yep, let's do it. You're good.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Yeah, because you have also the human-to-human connection, they get to see you, they like they get a sense of you. It's not like video calls are harder to build trust on, which is okay, but the in-person building relationship is so so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Expedites, expedites it, absolutely. So, another another big thing for you is thinking about the brain and thinking about the whole versus the parts. And I wanted to share this because I know a lot of people kind of struggle where they're just very unaware of themselves. So, talk about this whole versus parts mentality and mindset.

Measuring Connection With Nodes

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah, I mean, it's it's essentially the left and right brain, and I'll speak it in terms of marketing, but also in terms of people, so you kind of get a sense of it. And there's a book that I read on this that was really, really good, very thick book, a lot of science, but it's called The Master and His Emissary. And essentially, in the past, like you know, in the 1950s to 70s, don't quote me on the exact years, but there's times where we'd actually cut people's brains in half, um right for surgeries and things like that, because of trauma or certain things they've gone through. And so they've done a ton, they did a ton of studies during that time to be like, okay, what is the right brain really strong at versus what is the left brain really strong at? And it doesn't mean that the brain can't adapt, but it because it can, but there's certain things that your right brain does better than their left brain. And so when you when you think about the right brain, essentially all new information in life comes in through the right brain. So the first time you walk into a coffee shop, the first time you meet someone, it all comes in through that right brain. And the right brain looks at things in holistics, like it looks at things as holes, right? So it goes, how do I feel about this person? How do I feel about this coffee shop as a whole? Right. And five out of your six emotions sit in the right brain, of your primary emotions sit in the right brain. So what happens is new information comes in, your right brain makes a decision of looking at it as a whole, and then it goes, I like or I don't like this. And then it passes it off to the left brain. Now the left brain will then go, okay, we like this thing. Why do we like it? And now it starts adding uh language to it because language sits in the left brain. It starts, it starts adding all the little layers of like, we like this coffee shop because it has good decorations and blah, blah, blah. Or we don't like this person because he has a stain on his shirt and he doesn't seem to be put together, right? It starts to basically take whatever the right brain gives it and then adds reasoning to it. So why this is important. Let's say, in terms of marketing, you have a brand that looks really old from 1995, and I come to your website, it's the first time I'm seeing it, and I go, the right brain takes it in and goes, we don't feel good about this. And then it gives it to the right brain, and the right brain goes, uh, it gives it to the left brain, and the left brain goes, Oh, we don't like it because it looks like it's from 1995. There's so much text, it doesn't look like it's professional, we're just gonna cut it off, right? So first impressions are so important because your right brain takes it in, puts an emotion to it, and then you're verifying it. It's the same thing if you go to a networking event, right? Why do I dress really well for a networking event? Because you want to be look put together. If you look like someone, for example, that just does like there's a times where I'd go to networking events and I would always try to fit in. I didn't want to like wear anything that would make me stand out, right? And I started realizing once realizing this and doing a personal styling program that I was like, oh, why am I dressing down to fit in when if I dress up, I put a certain impression on someone. They go, Oh, I like this guy. He's put together his jacket, it looks cool, whatever it is. This guy gives me a cool emotion. And then left brain goes, We like this person. Now it's way easier to build a connection because I don't have to go in the hurdle of someone's first impression of me, right? Yeah. And so when you start thinking about this, you go, okay, well, maybe the next time I do go to a networking event, I won't wear flip-flops and shorts and uh, you know, a white t-shirt. Maybe I'll put a little bit more effort because now when someone sees you, they go, Is this person legit? Are they not legit? Are they so wealthy that they can dress like this? Or they maybe they're they're not so wealthy, or they don't care how they put them. Is this how they run their business? You know, like there's all these things we're subconsciously questioning why even make people question that? Just dress up, dress well, come across like a professional, and you don't have to deal with all those objections up front. And it's just gonna make the human connection piece way easier.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

That makes a lot of sense. Because and as soon as you approve something, it's double, tripled down on the approvement because they just keep going. And it's funny, I like I went to a coffee shop the other day and I ordered a cold coffee and it came out hot. And I sat there and I was like, hey, like, I've never ordered a cold one. And she goes, No, you ordered a hot one. And I'm like, I I just don't know that I believe that I did that. And I just I just walked out and I was like, okay, whatever. But in my head, I was like, I'm not going back there. Cause I just had that experience of you told I'm the customer, you told me I was wrong. And I'm like, I don't think I was wrong. Like, I'm trying not to make a thing, but I just don't know if I believe that. And it makes you realize like you're absolutely right when you go into something, you like it or you don't like it, and that causes you to kind of start to make decisions about your future life. Like, will I be doing this again? Will I be indulging in this activity? I I don't know. I'm different, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

How hard is it to change a first impression? Like, really, really hard. How hard is it changed, like a belief that you've had? Really, really hard. So why not make sure the first belief that goes in is a good one and a reflection of you versus just something that you're leaving up to chance?

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Absolutely, absolutely a hundred percent. And it also, like, if you start recommending stuff to people and you start connecting with people, they'll trust you more or trust you less. Like, I bet you the person that kind of brought up the event to you, and you went there and you're like, Oh, this is actually real. I trust you more. This is more a verifier. Yeah, if if that wasn't true, then they'd be like, I don't trust you, like, I don't want to see you. Like, and that that's a big thing for a lot of us because it can be challenging. 100%. So with Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars: it's mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality, and relationships. And I started doing this probably a hundred episodes ago now, honestly. I asked, I asked guests how they're feeling on the five pillars. The reason for that is because it really humanizes the guest. So mental health, where are you at today on a one to ten and why why is that?

SPEAKER_00 37:41

I have a pretty high bar for this. So I would say I'm an 8.5. And partly I say that because I've done, you know, 13 years of counseling to find out the things that I don't know about myself that are affecting me. Done a lot of work on understanding like the emotional awareness and things like that. I think mental health is always something you're gonna be working on, so I don't think you ever get it at it. It's a 10 out of 10, but you definitely get more resilient. So I would say I'm an 8.5. So you align it with resilience. I align it a lot with resilience, like not like hard resilience, but just the ability to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Mental fortitude.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah, exactly. Hard things, process those hard things and kind of just continue to move forward.

Purpose Beyond Money And Status

SPEAKER_01 38:16

I like that because a lot of the time we don't know what mental health actually means for people. So if you define it as your ability to take on no's mental fortitude, it's gonna allow you to be in the game a lot longer than the first person who hears a no and they're like, I give up. I'm not doing this anymore.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yeah, not specifically just in like just no's like that's like a part of it, right? Like the rejection. Oh, I felt rejected or I've you know felt uncomfortable in this situation. But even things like, oh, I took a really hard to hit this month and I'm like scared and fearful, but that's fine. I'm gonna process that and I'm gonna still continue to move forward out outside of that. Just like the ability to continue to process the things that are coming in, feeling whatever they need to be felt, and still moving forward because you know what your your ultimate goal is.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Absolutely. I like that. So it's not even a daily activity, it's more of just a mindset and how you carry yourself.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

Yeah, and just working on it, right? So I'm like, okay, I need to work on the counseling piece or the emotional piece, or today I need to just like really relax because my brain's been exhausted from traveling for the last week, right? Like just working with working with your mind in a way that that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Yeah, having an awareness. I like that. Like even today, I had a few, honestly, what became almost podcasts with people, they were like an hour and a half each, and I had 20 minutes, and I I just told myself I'm going on a walk. I'm gonna take this call and I'm gonna make it a walk because I know I have this podcast, I don't want to show up, and I want to be good, but you gotta get outside, you gotta change the environment, and that helped me today. So for you, physical health on a zero to ten. How do you feel about physical health?

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Physical health in terms of like going in the gym being fit and stuff, I would say like it's a nine out of ten. Oh wow. And then I mean, I go to the gym two, three times a week and I play soccer, and I think that's more than enough for what I need to do. Um and I go for walks, and then yeah, my my health would be a 10 out of 10, but I dealt with Crohn's growing up, which deals into SIBO and all that stuff. So just dealing with the after effects of SIBO, but that's that's just something you gotta consistently work at.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

Yeah. How did you uh start taking your fitness seriously, or you have you always?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

I've always uh I always played soccer and sports when I was younger, and then I've been hitting the gym since I was like what probably 16, 17 years old.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Oh, it's just been an easy habit for you to kind of carry.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

It's just something that's just who I am, and I need to fit and I know I feel better when I'm in the gym and working out and playing sports and being around other people. Uh yeah, it's just always been what something I do.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

That's awesome. So you identify with it. That's good. Because like when you identify it, it's like I'm a soccer player, you're gonna show up better. I'm just sharing that for the audience. When you start viewing yourself as the athlete, you're gonna become the athlete instead of I just gotta get fit today. No, it's not gonna work. No. Community service philanthropy. How do how does that show up?

SPEAKER_00 40:56

I would say it's like a two, maybe, because I don't like go and volunteer for things, but I do like, for example, my amplified relationship stuff, like share knowledge and things like that. I I really enjoy doing it. I think community service over time will become more and more important to me.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Most people say, well, you can do it now. I'm like, yeah, I got so many things on my plate, and at some point I will do it. But it's like I know that as I get into the later stages in life, that like giving back is going to be a massive thing in what I do. And I'm starting to do pieces of that now, but there's a lot more I could do.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Yeah, I I enjoyed the fact that you brought up the amplifying relationships because I remember in the pre-call you told me that you're aiming for a million to impact a million people and share that. What's your current number at? Because I have the other day. It might be a good one.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Yeah, it's the 24. And then on Wednesday, I'm I'm presenting another group of business owners, and then next month I'm doing another presentation. So we're slowly creeping up on that number.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Uh I'm not saying this is good or bad. I I just I just wanted you to share that because the audience it humanizes who you are and it says, hey man, like you just started this mission, that is fantastic, and you're working towards that. So it allows every single person to count. So because you share that, that might inspire someone else to go, oh, I have stuff to share. I have something that's impactful. So I appreciate you doing that.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Yeah, man. No, I love it. And and and even sharing that with people, it's like, yeah, if there's a people out there that can help support me in that goal, like you remember, I'm like, I have nothing to sell for this. I literally just want to share the knowledge so humans can connect deeper. And if someone wants a workshop from it, great, but like that's not the goal. Like, my business makes my money. This is just me getting back the knowledge that I've built up over the years.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yeah, and that that's one of the big things that people don't realize is that you can give community service through the skill sets that you have. Yeah. Because there's too many of us that think, oh, I just got to donate money or I got to donate time, or I got no, you can actually have a skill set and it could be valuable and you could just start giving that out.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Yeah, your knowledge is super important. Like, even if you're, let's say you're a coach, right? Like there's certain people you're charging a certain amount of money to be the coach for, but then there's some people that can't afford you. Like you might even be able to just give up free content or course content or whatever it is, just to hit a wider audience while you take care of the more you know the clients that can't afford your services.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Uh yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, even right now, what I do like we're doing the content right now.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

It's just part of the journey. Cool. And then we have relationships on a zero to ten. What do you think of it? And this could be family, friends, connection. Like, what do you think about that?

Practicing Reflection: Journal, Space, People

SPEAKER_00 43:18

My gut says it's a 10. Okay. Like, that's just this is what I do, man. I'm a connector. Like, yeah, Malcolm would have uh an amazing relationship with my wife. We've been together for 15 plus years, my family with my brother, like we're all very close. And then I have a an amazing network of friends and people I can reach out to and connect and support. And I run networking dinners. My next one's in three days. We've got 29 entrepreneurs coming out. Oh, wow. There's a lot of stuff that happens on the relationship front.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

How do you how do you tell me a little bit of the tips and the tricks about the dinners or staying connected? Or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Yeah, I mean, the dinners for me is essentially like I just want to bring people together that have really high energy in the entrepreneurship world. They're doing seven figures of um revenue, or they're doing 200k in profit or more, or just someone who's doing something cool in the world. Like I have some friends that are, you know, working with like global warming and stuff like that. So it's just like I just want to be around people that are cool and have high energy. And essentially I just say, hey, look, like everyone covers their own cost of food. I'll put this all together. And so whatever I sell the tickets up front, and the tickets literally just cost cover the cost of the food. Everyone shows up. I curate where people sit just based on what I think their interests are and who would connect well. And I do those once every two months.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Oh wow. How long have you been doing that?

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Literally, I just started again because we moved back. So I did it in December. We had Where are you right now? In Vancouver, Canada.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Okay, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

And essentially I built it because anytime I went down to like Miami or Austin or Los Angeles, like the the entrepreneurship community down in the States is just so much different. Like on a Tuesday, you could have, you know, 50 CEOs just hanging out, talking business. Whereas in Vancouver, it's a little bit different. And so I was like, How do I bring that energy back up into Vancouver? So ran a dinner in December, 14 guys showed up and then I was like, okay, cool, let's just keep rolling. And so now I just kind of have like a WhatsApp group. I think there's about 39 entrepreneurs in there that have conversations with. And then I use the WhatsApp group. It's kind of like hidden, it's secret. So I'll invite people to the dinners and it's kind of like a bit of a vetting process like what's their energy like? How do they kind of fit in the environment, etc., etc.? And as the dinners kind of happen, I'll then add them into the WhatsApp group, which then in the future makes it really easy for me to be like having a dinner on this day. Here's where it is, here's the tickets, who wants to sign up, but it just makes it more committal.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Yeah. Absolutely. I like that strategy.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

And then you can even offer more of a I mean, you can go with that a million different ways.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Yeah, man. Like if I want to play poker with some friends, I'm literally gonna go into that channel and be like, guys, I'm having a poker at my house. They got so eight spots. Who wants to come play? Like it just you're able to create a community and environment.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Well, it has scale with relationships, and I think a lot of people miss that because they're constantly like, I reached out to Jimmy and he didn't get back to me today. And it's like, you try. One person's not gonna be there, it's not trying. And then the last one, spirituality. How do you think about spirituality?

SPEAKER_00 46:01

I think I'm like a five out of ten there. Spirituality is something that I've been paying more and more attention to over the last years, it has shifted quite a bit, which I think for me is just really getting in touch with your intuition and who you are. And I'm learning more and more about that as you kind of like peel back the layers. I think spirituality has a whole like right side where people have gone very, very deep into it. And then there's a whole like left side where people are like, I'm not touching at all. I think I'm like right in the middle, and I think I'm gonna kind of stay there and try to bridge the gap between these two sides as I learn more about it, right? It's an interesting world when it comes to spirituality.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

100%. I was laughing because the guy who I spoke to or before this, he goes, Spirituality, you're gonna like 50% of the people are gonna love you, 50% of the people are gonna hate you. And the way you just go, Yeah, the right side, I'm like, okay, spirituality, we might have to change that word out. Because yeah, it used to be religion, and I was like, Oh no, not that. But spirituality is more of this, like, much more holistic. Who do you want to be? How do you want to show up?

SPEAKER_00 47:01

What's your how what's that energy instead of just being yeah, yeah, because I mean, like, one side of spirituality, you start talking about the soul and how everything's connected and how everything's there's a battle between good and evil, and you're like, okay, that's like I can't wrap my head around that. And then there's the other side where it's like, oh, I'm not connected to anything, but no, I I do generally inside feel like we are all connected. I don't think we randomly think of people and then they call us. Like, that's that's just too many times that coincidence happens where you're like, no, we're all connected by a certain sense, and we all have this inner intuition that we need to listen to because it's telling us what to do. Um and that's why when people follow their gut feelings on certain things, they're usually somewhat correct as long as they have the right filters in place.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, where where can people learn more about you? Where can they hear more about you? Where can they stay connected?

Conferences And Super-Connector Tactics

SPEAKER_00 47:51

Yeah, I mean, the best way is LinkedIn. So look up beta gemsedy and you'll find me on LinkedIn pretty easily. Also on Facebook, I I post very similar content on both sides. And then if you're looking around my marketing agency business, it's www.cjammarketing.com. That's where I help do the matchmaking for businesses and marketing partners. And soon I'll have my amplified relationships content up on my own personal website. So I'm kind of all over the place. But if as long as you start in one of those first three spots, you'll find the rest.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Absolutely. I love it. Awesome.