Thomas always knew he wanted to be an educator and got the training for it, but could not find the opportunity for many reasons. So he created his own!
Thomas Joseph, Territory Sales Hunter and Ed (Tech) Sales Aficionado is here to inspire you with his journey, and help you:
- Identify and break barriers to teaching students wanting to learn from you across the globe
- Understand how to tap into gratitude and empathy to sell your courses and programs
- Find the courage to go online, persist, and get the results you know you can achieve
Education is your passion - Thomas can show you how to love the business side of it, too! Don't miss this invigorating conversation!
Thomas always knew he wanted to be an educator and got the training for it, but could not find the opportunity for many reasons. So he created his own!
Thomas Joseph, Territory Sales Hunter and Ed (Tech) Sales Aficionado is here to inspire you with his journey, and help you:
- Identify and break barriers to teaching students wanting to learn from you across the globe
- Understand how to tap into gratitude and empathy to sell your courses and programs
- Find the courage to go online, persist, and get the results you know you can achieve
Education is your passion - Thomas can show you how to love the business side of it, too! Don't miss this invigorating conversation!
welcome to lifelong educators, a community of teachers, of parents, of anyone interested in the future of education, it's new innovations and how we can keep doing it all better and better and better. Our guest today always knew he wanted to be an educator and got the training for it, but could not find the opportunity.
Jacky:Some of the reasons might surprise you? Well, he created his own Thomas Joseph territory, sales hunter, and ed tech sales at the sea. And auto is here to inspire you. I'm Jackie gusta, associate professor at WCS U and I am joined today by my cohost gesture to cough senior advisor, click to an online enrichment program. And of course, Thomas Joseph himself. Welcome Thomas and Josh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jack and Thomas, you're coming all the way from, yeah, I'm based in Kuwait at the moment. somewhere in the middle east, this place I was raised and I grew up here. Yeah. And yeah. at the moment I'm a regional sales consultant for a company called Scholastic, which is the world's largest publisher of children's books and resources.
Thomas:I love the job. I love working with children that the idea of putting books in people's hands excites me. Yeah. now you, you are going to show us how we can break down barriers, but you've had some barriers to break down yourself. you know, when I first started out, I think, when I first became a dad really, you know, and then having a child and, you know, one of us had to stay at home and it was me who decided to be the stay-at-home parent. And I think the first year was just a completely, eye-opener a brand new experience, something I've never experienced before. And, you know, just with the child and everything, I had to YouTube, basically everything for me to see. Right. So. I kind of had to do all of it. And I picked up on that. And then after a while I think a few months into it, I was like, you know, what can I do to kind of still continue being with my child and still be able to contribute in certain ways? And that's when I kind of decided I wanted to go become a teacher, what are we going to do early childhood? And again, we were in the middle east in Kuwait, my wife's, she was working out at the time and I had stolen. This is what I wanted to do. So. Kind of backed up bags and moves to New Zealand, for a couple of years where I could study to become a early childhood educator. I did a. I was there for about two and a half years that came back to Kuwait, and then continued with the degree. And then I was able to work in a school at the moment. it was difficult to work as an early childhood kid in Kuwait because just being a male in a middle Eastern country, it was difficult to get in. But then I just found my way to a school, was started right from the very bottom as an assistant's assistant. If you will, if you could say. And, and worked my way up to being a good one teacher kind of thing. It took me about four years to do. but in the meantime, just had the lovely opportunity of taking my kids to school. You know, I could take my kids with me to work the whole time. So that was a really exciting part. And while I was there, an opportunity came up with this company called Scholastic right here in the middle east. Didn't really know much about Scholastic and the opportunity came up. it was a perfect allegation of me being in sales prior and as neither good work into it. And I loved it. I just loved the opportunity of working with Scholastic. you know, just gave me the. Paul kind of structure and process in my life to make this thing move forward and pass the word around. So that's kind of what I kind of woken on my barriers, but I'd say the biggest thing that came, the biggest obstacle that was in my path was just being a male, teacher in Kuwait and getting past that and convincing parents and other teachers that I was somebody who had a place within the school system.
Jacky:So I think that was when I came out of that. That's his background, and I want to welcome everybody in our audience today. If you've got any questions for Thomas, you have any comments. Please put them in the chat. Here's your chance to talk to somebody who can really help guide you and inspire you through your own journey. And I also want to bring in Josh, Josh, you are down in the middle of Mexico. That's right. Yeah. We got to cover what you covered. We've got Mexico, we got Kuwait. And you know, I'm sitting here reflecting on my own past silently a little bit, and can relate a little bit to what, to what Thomas is saying, you know, because, I was, didn't have.
Zoom recording - October 28, 2021-2:And obviously, you know, trying to, set up an education company, which we've talked about in the past on other shows was really focused on, PTA's and PTA's are, are really led in an unbelievable way by a lot of moms, and it's volunteer effort that they do. And I would sit down at the table and that was face to face with them and, and, You know, I didn't have a kid and, and then I was a guy and they're like, what are you doing here? And so it took time. To learn how to relate to them, and to earn their trust. And it was on me to earn their trust because I wanted to be a part of their community and similar to what I think, you know, our friend here had to go through as well, which is we knew that we were kind of outsiders and I accepted that and he accepted that. but you were in that trust and look where it takes you. So you got to break down the barrier, but after you do that, you feel good about yourself and you feel good about the place that you are. Hmm. So Thomas, Josh just mentioned something really important. He talked about breaking down those barriers.
Thomas:So you told us a story at one time, how you did, how you even resorted to sweeping floors to get through. Yeah. Yeah. So that was just trying to get some work. Right? So part of when I went to the school in New Zealand, part of the deal was that I had to be a full-time employee with a daycare center. And I just got in there maybe four days prior. I didn't know anybody. And I asked the school, I was like, You know, who can I call? And they took out this big folder of books of contacts and just gave it to me. And I don't remember. I remember it was a 62nd one, so I made 62 calls and on the 62nd call, this lady was like, all right, just stood up and we'll see what we can do. And I was like, okay. And I remember going into the meeting, this lady, she was the person who was running the place, the manager. He had this gene spans on with that high boots. grandfather was a motorbike guy. And so she was one of those ladies and she looked me up and down and she was like, do you have any experience with, working with children and economic dad, but I really don't know much. And the first thing she did was just gave me a mop, told me to go stand by the corner. And she said, I want you to observe, and I'll see you in two weeks. And she didn't actually even say it two weeks and she said I'll see you in a few days. but all I want you to do is keep your mouth closed. Just keep observing, and then we'll talk about it. I would say in those two weeks, I kind of, you know, I, I did my best to keep those flows as clean as possible. I was all over that all the times I was on it, but I was also observing and learning and things like that. And I think I worked my way up from there. to, you know, to a position that I was happy with, which was in terms of my focus within the school since early childhood, was social, emotional development. And I think that's where I kind of was focused on making sure these children were social, emotional healthy. And I think my, my area of expertise was, you know, when, when new kids were brought into the center was getting them acclimated to the, to the center. So that was not an easy process. Lots of teachers struggled with that. you know, but it was all about. Making the child welcome, you know, staying with the child. Not budging and not being too, not pulling the child too towards you, but letting the child actually settle down and be calm and, you know, taking care of the child, bringing them water, bringing them food slowly kind of thing, and get them, you know, ease them into the center kind of thing. So that was my expertise. And I worked my way up from there And all the time. That's kind of how I actually did it. I I think the main focus to overcoming any obstacles is to number one, just keep doing the work, right. If you believe in the work Keep doing it, no matter what, you know, opportunities will come that is, will fall as long as your mind is focused on the work. So I think that would be my biggest takeaway is just, you know, you might see a better, you might see an obstacle and things may not look really open for you, but then just focus on what you're good at, put down the work and keep at it, and then things will happen. So that's, that's what I believe you talking about her appearance. Yeah. And Josh knows a little bit about that too. Yeah, this guy, you know, Thomas, what you're talking about as you're, as you're, as you're talking, it sounds like a, I mean, I can only imagine why you're an amazing person to sell for Scholastic, you know, because basically that you've laid out what should be the process for anybody. I think in terms of selling, you know, you're going to be, you're going to persevere because you believe in Scholastic, but I was imagining kind of how you potentially do Scholastic sales with people, which is. Walk them into the product, you know, let them get used to it. Talk to them about. Find out where they're coming from, you know, and how you can help them, which is, the way to do it. And then talk about how this can be a really good thing for them. So, you know, I can imagine you're very successful, you know, I've tried to work with you more and more, and, and, but I think that that's a really good approach when it comes to sales is you're going to persevere for sure. You're going to break down the barrier. You're going to get there. You're going to figure it out. But in the meantime, you've got to let the client or the child in that case. Get more comfortable with the situation that they're in. So that it's a good, a good experience for both sides. Absolutely. I think, you just nailed it, nailed it right there. You know, the, the essential part is, is not, is not pushing what you have onto anybody, right? It's, it's bringing them, easing them into it, kind of finding out what their needs are, respecting their space and understanding what they want out of the situation and then giving them the opportunity to come into it and use, use your stuff on it. So you would see us for example, that's exactly what it is like you don't call and say. from Scholastic, yo here's my 10,000 words. Go ahead and get it right. You kind of identify what their issues are. What are the challenges at the moment? Try and understand, prioritize what their needs are, you know, figuring out what they, you know, where they're at, where they'd like to be and how you can help them get there. So I think that's, if you can figure that what those things. are Then you're not really selling at the end of the day. You're just helping them with their needs and figuring out how to best help them overcome challenges. And I think that's the mindset that you need to have when you're trying to sell anything to anybody. Right? You don't push what you had wanted to somebody, you figuring out what the needs are. And if you can solve for that, then yes. You know, you want to move forward with that. You don't want to, you'd never really want to sell somebody something, something that they don't need. So, you know, that's, that's where I'm at with sales.
Jacky:Well, you have a pretty interesting take on this. Something I've never heard from a sales person is that you try to tap into your client's, empathy into their gratitude. Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. I think all of us, you know, we all, each and every one of us were working, you know, we were working for our families.
Thomas:We were working. We want to do the best that we can, just to be good at our jobs to make sure that you're helping other, the people you're supposed to be helping and just move forward with that. So understanding that, you know, just coming from a place of being grateful and I'm so grateful for the opportunity, both for Scholastic and that this past six years it's opened doors for me, it's, showing me what structure and process means. It's, it's taught me how to understand what other people are going through, you know, and every one of us, we all have our ups and downs. All of us have rough days. All of a sudden, it's just people open to understanding that. Right. And. Just be, when you understand that video video, when you're connecting to people who might have a rough day, you might call them at a certain point. They're just not happy. And for some reason, they're screaming at you just to understand that it's personal it's until they actually meet you and know you and then scream at you. That's a different story. But if not, it's not, you can call. I've done that many times as well. People have screamed at me on the phone, right? Stop calling me. Don't do this. leave me alone and all of that, you know, and then I call them a week later. Sometimes they don't even recognize me again so I can start all over again. But if they do remember, it's usually thank you for calling me back. I was embarrassed to actually talk to you again, but you know, I was having an off day or, you know, something happened. It's just being open to that, right. Because. Understanding of that process. Like it's, it's fine because the thing is, even when I'm selling you something, look, I'm not selling you something you don't need. I believe in what I'm selling. I believe it's useful to you, to who are talking to, it's going to help you. It's going to help students. It's going to help teachers. And that's why I'm calling it, right. I'm not just calling just to waste your time. And at the same time, I'm not wasting my time just calling random people. So we all kind of working and having that kind of. Understanding and empathy, that's going to take you far in what you want to be doing. So yeah, I think that's, that's where I come from. It does that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, I just read something from HubSpot that landed in my inbox today. and 43% inboxes have 43% more emails in the same time last year. and what's, what's really interesting. I think about. Thomas, I've never received a sales email from him or a phone call.
Zoom recording - October 28, 2021-2:but he stands out, you know, as, as somebody who is different. So whether it's 42% more emails, you know, when you get the opportunity to, to, to talk to Thomas, you do realize that that empathy, you know, that that passion is actually very true. And so it does come from. And I don't know if you're the exception or the rule, probably the exception to really be able to sell what you believe in. you know, I, I feel the same way, so maybe both of us are exceptions. but, you know, you, you, you really do live that, that you. You that you practice what you preach. And then Jackie, you know, we, I keep sharing it with you on LinkedIn. And like, here's more, here's more Tom takeaways and here's more from Tom cause it's real. Like Tom gives back in the, in, in, you know, in the internet, which is, you know, Lord knows how big that is and he stands for. With his empathy and giving back to people. And then you, Tom has his takeaways with Jackie. You can explain, but like, then you have all these other people were like, thank you for sharing. Thanks for including me. Thanks for what you do. And you got to 1000, right? Absolutely. I think, you know, that's, that's really been a really, exciting ride when I first started her on LinkedIn. Just trying to learn and from other people and just figuring out that you can really basically learn from anybody. Right. So it doesn't have to be somebody famous. It doesn't have just somebody who's been there just about anybody. You just have a conversation, there's something to learn from them. And I think that's what I kind of started this journey about Tom's takeaways was, and I would go, I would browse the LinkedIn pages and look. Things to known from it. I would pick on all these things that really seemed really interesting to me, which was connected either to my sales work or something I had to do about how to live my life in a kind of a more positive way. And I would remember first taking down these notes on a piece of paper, you know, just to like read them later. But then I would see that every day I was putting down these notes and, at some point I was like, you know, these are great. But I think, you know, it was just for my eyes only, and I wanted other people to see it. And so I think that's why I kind of started posting it on, on LinkedIn was well, two for two reasons. One was when my kids grew up, you know, my daughters, I want them to see this one day, if they wanted to get inspired or, you know, get some insights and see what. But at the same time, it's just being able to spread what I was learning everyday. Just to put it there so I could help other people, you know, if there's this one or two people, that that was my initial idea. If there's one or two people who saw it and got something from it, that'd be great. So it's been, yeah, I do 10, 10, 10. Coats, three times a week. and yeah, at least a thousand last week. So that's been really interesting. it's, it's kind of uplifting as well. It helps people and inspires people and even the people I quote as well. you know, I think it's just, it's kind of a booster as well. Somebody recognizing the world, somebody that can and get bulls and that I think also kind of bumps them up to do better and keep going. So that's where I'm at topstick visits. So it's something really, I'm really proud of in terms of I'm happy to have, sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Give us an example of something you posted last. Something possibly, yeah, there's there's one, one post from this one person posted that she, she corrected me and said, no, that was a lyric from Taylor swift, which was a no don't, there'll be, don't be. So don't be too kind that you stopped being clever and don't be too clever that he stopped being. You know, so I, I think that that was quite inspiring. I can't believe you didn't pick that out. Taylor swift, this is just, just those kinds of things. Right. Even in sales and even with lots of things. You can't be completely done until you figured out how to be a great teammate. just those kind of things, lift people up, pass along, gigs, you know, identify your own board of directors. You know, if that makes sense. Right. So I think that's really, really changed my life in terms of having to find mentors and people to help me out and learning. before I got on LinkedIn, really, I remember complaining to my wife, we were living in Kuwait and just telling her, you know, there's not a lot of kind people out there. And one day when I, when I do my own thing, I'm going to make sure I'm going to be kind to everybody and things like that. And she was like, what are you talking about? Good people everywhere. And I'm like, I don't see them, you know? And then I got a LinkedIn and just. All these people, this random string, this from all across the world, just willing to help. Right. Just taking time out of the day and their time to give me 20 minutes. Give me 30 minutes to tell me what I'm doing. Right. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Well, so inspiring and it kind of changed my whole outlook in life. I'm such, such a more positive person now. I I've, you know, I've got that back, that thing back, but I, you know, I believe in people, I try to help as many people as I can. And so, yeah, it's really, really, I think it's helped me more than anybody else that don't stick with for sure. Yeah, that's cool. You know, Thomas, we have a question for Miriam in our audience and she wants to know from you, what type of innovation would you like to see in early childhood education? Oh, that's an interesting question. Yeah, we can talk about, yeah, I know. There's, there's lots of things, right? I think the main thing. Anything that has to do with keeping these kids happy. you know, there's show, there's not a focus on them learning and you know, they, they need to do certain things. I need to be set of milestones and they need to do all these things while they grow up. But I think. Things that keep them happy. You know, that keeps, that keeps them, makes them social. That helps them in the social aspect of it. I'm very intrigued by anything that has to do with any program that has to do with keeping children like socially positive and, you know, maintaining their social health at that age, especially two and a half to four and a half, I think. Finding out things to do that, you know, kind of promotes that idea of, you know, being kind to one another. I know we talk about this all the time, but it does have innovation. Yeah. Something like that. Something that's more focused on that than anything else. I think I would love to see something like Thomas, what about, what we're passionate about here at click two, which is online learning, you know, how do you, where do you, where do you fall on online learning for in early childhood education? Okay. I think, you know, maybe it's different from the adults and oldest kids and things like that, but online learning, for sure can help children as well, but it has to be more tailored to them. Right. More gamified. Short shorter versions of not half an hour, not even 20 minutes, but maybe 10 minute clips and things like that. I think those wouldn't hold the attention. Right. So there's something like that. So in terms of online learning, using gaming, a gamified approach, That's going to help them, but something that's also focused in very, in a very short bus so that they don't spend a lot of time, like on online, like on the computer, but short burst and different clubs that they can actually, you know, keep coming in and out of the program as, as, as let's take it one step further, online learning. We're passionate about it for adults as well. And you know, one of the other things that. which I, I wait for it, like my Sunday, you know, posted, they used to throw on the, you know, your steps back in the day, right. Is Tom posts, all of the things, the webinars he's going to attend each week webinars or, you know, groups on Thursday night. And so Tom, you got to like talk big time here about the pandemic, please learning online. And then the positive aspect of being in a different time zone from the east and being able to take advantage of what goes on in the us. So I'm leading you into to talk a lot here about a few different things. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think just during the pandemic, we were all in that face way and like, oh, at first it was the, oh, this is not going to last too long. You know, don't worry about it. That it morphed into this is going to take forever. And we just going to sit in our homes and do nothing. And, you know, we made it out. And then at the end of it, you know, we'll probably wait it out a year or two, but, and see what happens after, but. I just started getting more involved with getting on LinkedIn and trying to figure out how to kind of level up and get better at my job. So just to give you an example of last March, 2021, when it broke out, you know, the pandemic broke out. Everything shut down. My year was ending in may and I was not going to reach, it was not going to get my bonus, but I was very unhappy. I was like, you know, what am I going to do? How am I going to move this forward? And then I remember June 1st was the first day of the year. and I was like I got to do something different. I got to figure out how to level up. I need help. you know, I'm not going to be able to do it by myself and I need, I need to figure out how to get better. And that's when I started getting online so to speak, getting on LinkedIn and figuring out how to level up. And the one thing I connected with, especially with the U S was right. you guys have specialists in every single part of the sales process. I'm talking like, an email subject. There's somebody out there, right? the cold calling the first 10 seconds. You've got somebody here. So this is different people. What is going on. Yeah. Hold on a minute. Wait a minute. You know, and I was like, all right. And so I started that. I started that. I started looking for people. Okay. Email, subject line, not more than three months. It next line. All right. The email body, it shouldn't be more than 120 words. All right, let's do this. You know, just those kinds of things. And then the structure of the email read first, figuring out the chapter. The extra drugs. I, and the same thing with the cold calls, same thing, all of that. I started learning and I started meeting these people. I started connecting to sales leaders on and seeing what they were up to. And so I just completely leveraged everything online, sitting in my room in Kuwait right. And figured out, Hey, how do I make this work for me? And then connecting to all these people who are talking about everything related to what I wanted to get good at. And so that's what I started doing. And the. Yeah, it's, it's infinite in terms of the webinars, in terms of podcasts, there's so much to listen to and so much to learn, but I think the one critical difference is also, you know, you've got to apply what you're listening to, to your actual work. it goes back to always doing. your work And so everything, everything I would learn, I would start applying. I've stopped putting into, and I, I think in my team here in Kuwait and in the middle east team, I think I was one of eight people who actually hit my targets for this year. I had, I think I did 150% of all my targets. So I think that kind of solidified, you know, the process of going online and picking on what you want to do in today's world. It's 2021 Anything you want to do, you can do online. I have a 10 year old came to me last year and said, dad, I want to learn Swahili. And I was like, what are you talking about? she's like, yeah, you know, last year in school, our teacher did the geography and I wanna learn Swahili. and we got online and we found a teacher, from Kenya who was happy to teach my child. So him and she's been learning that for the last 10 months, you know? So it's, it's that. And I think that's the motivation. It's not. Is online learning gonna work That's not the question. The question is, what do I want to. learn How can I do it. how can I get the best kind of learning out of it and do it in a, in a way that's really cost effective for me. And that's, that's all you got to figure. out So I don't think the question is, is online learning something we need to focus on what, what is it that we want out of it and then go online and going to get it. So it's there you know, especially living in these kinds of parts of the world, there's so much opportunity out there. and it's something that everybody needs to get into for sure. 100%. Jackie, one last question for me. I know. I, but I gotta, I gotta ask this is Dotan and I from click to we, we spend a lot of time talking to enrichment providers, about what they provide, whether it's karate or a language or art. And a lot of them are, uh, really excited and I'm happy for them because I've been in that space for a long time. They're going back to in-person, which is fantastic. We also talked to them about indirectly your family in Kuwait, who would love to take an art class from, in our provider in Frederick, Maryland. I know Marsha young Rembrandts or, you know, a chess program that originates out of Chicago. So can you talk about that? How there is this desire, you know, to, to take these classes from outside of the U S. Thomas. Can you talk about it as a, as a parent? Look, as a boat, we do not have these kinds of opportunities that we will have if we didn't have the online access to, an art glass here is, you know, should we have it, but it's not something that we are really, really well known brands coming out of it. And the price wise, it dumps cost. For example, just to give you an idea. Maybe a 45 minute class could be about$50. and then that's just on an average and it's the same thing goes for all the other things, as well, even learning chess, trying to play an instrument, all of that with, we're still talking lots of money here and it's not, Octopart, it's not something that we as parents, you know, kind of satisfied with. We take it because that's our only opportunity. but otherwise, no having said that. All of us, like everybody be known has moved online, everything we want for our kids. Now we get it online. and not only is it cost effective, we get to choose what we want. We can get to pick the best of everything that we see and then provide that for our children. And I think that's what we want more than anything else. so, you know, being able to get access to that, I mean, access to play to them, all that you guys. All of that. I think that makes a difference, especially for people, these parts of the world who don't have that, you know, and different types of who can't go out and get it. I think that that's, that's where you got to play a suit, so yeah, absolutely. Thomas, do you find that there's a lot of collaborative online learning for the kids or not? Is it more one-on-one. No 100%. I think the, the collaborative aspect of it is something that encourages children. You know, the one-on-one is great or attending classes are great, but having these collaborative sessions where you, they can actually talk to the other person talk to other students, it gives, it gives them a sense of belonging. It kind of motivates them to get back to the class, you know? So all those things really play an important role. My, my daughters, I've noticed that, you know, in the first time of the schooling, we have actually moved them into online schooling, by the way, we don't send them. So just doing that with the middle schools, and watching the schools then create these sessions where other students to participate in all this, you know, the students can participate with each other has been really, really helpful for our children, especially being locked in, you know? And, I think there's also, there's also an online school. Well, not a school, but an online peer to peer kind of center in Dubai that was kind of offering free where all the students like in grade nine and grade 10 could then tutor these other kids, like younger grades, no cost at all. It was completely free with assessment, social interaction of it. But the older students could put that, put that down in their college applications and things like that. It is meant for that. So just having those kinds of collaborative efforts, I think really plays an important role. it kind of motivates them to kind of want to participate, you know? And you though. I mean, it's the same when you're talking about your kids. It's interesting, based on our relationship, I think you're kind of talking about yourself, right. And how you were like, I'm stuck at home. I'm just gonna use the worldwide web here. And I'm going to, I know where I want to get to and learning, and I'm looking forward to learning what these folks I have. To make it to that Thursday night sales meeting, because Thursday night is date night with my wife and I, I'm not, I'm not changing that. Right. I'll, we'll be in a lot of trouble and I enjoy it. But you know, you have that Thursday night thing, right. You wake up at what, three o'clock for that east coast. Yeah. So because it's got two of my favorite people on there. One is called lease and the other one's Amy Wallace, and both of them are like sales, you know, Great leaders. Fantastic. They achieved great things in terms of sales. They're where I want to be at some point. but I think what was Stan? What stands out for me is this. So empathetic and so kind, these people are, they, they they're doing is running Scott, Lisa's running a consulting business, he's got six or seven projects. but, I can guarantee you this, you send him a text, he'll respond, you send him an email, he'll respond to you. Like it's guaranteed. We're going to ask them to be on the show, by the way, 100%. I mean, it's guaranteed. This man will go out of his way to help you. No matter how busy he is. And I think that's. So as to follow, it was a Thursday night, every Thursday evening, I think about seven or 8:00 PM Eastern standard time, which was, Sometimes three o'clock 3:00 AM. Sometimes 4:00 AM, depending on daylight savings. but I haven't missed one since last October for at least a lot class months, I haven't missed a single session. but you know, it was just going to these meetings and seeing for me, it was a learning experience as well. There were other people that talking about actual. Issues that they had at work and how, what they do to solve it in a very positive, you know, like confidence building may kind of thing. So that's what, but I think that the whole idea is that if you are interested in something and you want to learn, you know, you, you got to go ahead and do it, you know, and it's, it's not like it's the am. I mean, it sounds like Liam is a big deal, but it's not a big deal. If you sleep at night. The day before. So it's just kind of figuring out how you want, what you want to do and it just your life accordingly. And so that's the idea. you can do everything in this world that you really want to do. And especially today, especially with the world wide web, you know, you can do it, you just have to want to do it and it happen. So that's, that's the one thing. Yeah. You know, Thomas, I want to talk to you about one of your selling techniques. You say that yeah. You find solutions to overcome your clients, quote, unquote pain points. Can you share that with us? Look again. It's just kind of identifying what, what the issues are like. Let me give you an example. So again, during the pandemic we had one of my suppliers. And he was running this business with schools, but all schools shut down. and he was about to give up and he was like ready to close down. And I kind of. Know, I'm sending books to him. So I went to him and I was like, Hey, what's going on with you? And he's like, you know, everything is shut down, Thomas. I think I'm at the end of my rope, you know, don't know what to do. Probably have to shut down the business has gone. you know, and I'm going to struggle. So it's kind of coming from that place, right. Trying to help him with his idea of like, my business is struggling. What can I do? And so in my mind is not about selling books anymore. It was how do I help this? It's figured out how to say this business, how do I help save this business? Kind of, that was, that was the question that was going through my mind. Not about how can I sell him my books and that's it. How can I help this man, you know, with his family? How can I, what can I do? And so I remember coming back home at that time, thinking, you know, he sells books and who buys, which at this time, no, one's buying the bookstores all closed, but then I was looking at home. I come home. My wife's ordering books online for our kids. And I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, we need the books. Everybody needs the books. The schools are shut down. Our kids need books. They going crazy. We need to get them. And so that's when it clicked in my head, you know, my wife's are able to Amazon, it costs a hundred,$120 just to ship it over and people are paying it over here because they don't have any other choice. And so then I called this man back and I was like, Hey, you know, have you ever thought of doing this thing on. Know, let's start selling your books online, you know, whatever you have. And he was like, what do you mean? I can't build a website. I said, you don't have to build a website. Get on Instagram because Instagram is the one social media that's everybody uses. That's the number one platform and started just putting books out there and saying you're selling them and then promoted. And he started from that point, he was like, you know, I'll give it a shot and see what happens. six months later. meeting the man and now he's got, an online delivery business. So he's hired six people with cars to go and deliver books to people in Kuwait. You know? So it's, I didn't find what was the paintball. Hey, here's my books. Take it and you know, good luck. I've done my job. I've not done my job. If I'm not held this man with this pain points, that's what I mean by finding solutions to the people spending for us. Whenever you're trying to push something on someone first, figure out what is the look, look at their needs, what do they want? What are they looking for? Right. If you're trying to sell it to a school, a principal is just come on board and he's a brand new principal. The first thing he wants is to make sure that whatever he brings into this. You know, it doesn't mess him up. It doesn't get a bad rap out of it, but so that's, that's where he comes. So you, he's going to make sure that everything is checked down to a T, he wants all, everything signed. He wants all the data dies. So that's how you kind of make sure, you know, you kind of help them with that. You kind of find out that's what he needs, you know, so that's what I'm going to get him. So that's how you operate. You just figured out what their pain points are, figure out what, what can I do to help them get better at what they want to do? And that's how you kind of. sell Hm. So you've told us how to start a relationship, but how do you continue to keep your clients? Yeah, that's, it's, it's not very difficult. It's always just being transparent, you know, being completely open and transparent, again, identifying what their needs are and being very clear about it. If a person needs a, B and C. That's what you would recommend a, B and C. You don't tell a, B, C, D E F G. We tell them, you just need a, B and C. And just being honest about that, right. Even though the a to Z costs a lot more money, so you don't need that. You just need a, B and C now, let's go with that, you know? And so helping them recognize what they need, being transparent about it. And again, you know, going back to always thinking about them and making sure that they're happy and they're going forward because. When are we starting a relationship with someone it's always long-term right. You always want a long-term relationship. You want them to remember you always thinking a couple of years down the road, right? If I meet you today, Jackie, I hope to keep in touch with you. And in a couple of years, So in some way, they get docked to you and things like that. So that's how I want to treat other people. It's it's understanding, you know, it always has to be a win-win situation. That's, that's how I kind of always look at a relationship. If they're happy, I'm happy, then, then it's good. Right? What if, what if you're not happy? What if you're not happy? I mean, we've all, I've had some relationship with some schools where I'm like, it's just not working for me. I love the business and we eat the money, but this isn't working for me. So what if you're not happy? 100%, at the beginning of us, you know, I, I would not be happy. I would just take the deal because that's the deal coming through. Yeah. But I've learned to, I've learned that it doesn't work for the long term. and, and if you're not happy at some point, they're not going to be happy either. Right. So you, you know, that's when I said it, so it's always better to nip it in the bud, you know, before me, what you, what you want to. You know, don't again, don't, don't let them take advantage and don't take advantage of anybody basically. So that's the idea. It's when, when you know, and if you happy, happy, if you're not happy, if I'm not happy at some point, you're not going to be happy either. That's the idea. It's just, you know, let's try and be happy here because the thing is. We are happy if it takes care of, issues. If they scared about challenges, they scared about solutions. If it provides a solution. Great. You know, that's what we want it to be. So yeah. Happy, happy. It does sound like a relationship, right? Yeah. Eight nights. We'll fix all of that. So a number, you know, I'm sure a number of people listening to you now. Might have some hesitation about jumping to the online platform. I know that working in a university. it's not welcome online is not welcomed. And it is, shunned actually, as though it is a lesser way to learn than in person learning. So if some of the people out there who are listening to you now have encountered that barrier and you are an expert in overcoming barriers, how could you help them in that case? So I think it's, it's a mindset, right? and, and maybe maybe 15, 20 years ago, that might have been the case where, you know, people felt that. But again, it's, it's a mindset. It's a feeling, when we go online, when you go online to learn. Well, two things. One is the knowledge right at the beginning, get from it. Is it, is it the same as we will get as we report in person? That's the one thing that we got to be got to see and the other one is possibly certification, right? having an online certification is not a blessed, lesser value than the one you get online. So. Before there was a debate. Now I don't think that is, you know, at least in the last 10 years, I think I've seen it. Doesn't matter when you go online or you go in person, certifications, the same knowledge wise again, it's the same. Right. And it's, again, it's your mindset and how you apply it. The most that you get that that's what matters more than anything else. So I've done kind of. Parts of it. I've gone online in person and online. And for me, I, I prefer online for sure, because it gives me my own. I can have my own timings. I can, you know, I have a family as well, so I could then time, you know, put the classes when I want to do it. and I also like the, I didn't have complete control of what I'm learning and I'm able to get, you know, if I, if I have a question, if I have some issues, there's always a class, there's a forum. There's some teachers that I can get out to the, somebody I can reach out to. It all boils down to a mindset and the idea of your perspective. it's it's only a barrier in your kind of head, if, if what if that's what I want to do that I'm going to do it, you know? And if, if that's your attitude, the barrier kind of dispense away because you're figuring out how to do it, going in person, you know? Sure. It's great. But I think just that, that's mostly, also just the social aspect of it, but I personally, before. And for those of you who are there, who, you know, who's having doubts about it. Look, you have to figure out in your head. Like I said, it goes back to what knowledge am I chasing? You know, well, what is it that I'm going to get out of it? Do they provide it for me? And then the second part, obviously again, as a certificate, is that a value for me and then figuring out what you want to do and then move forward from there. But don't, don't let the idea of like, oh, it's all lines. I don't want to do it. That's that's putting yourself off from opportunities that, that are. but I guess, you know, I work with a lot of what I would call dinosaurs who don't want any online education coming into our institution. What would you say to them? I, I, I'm going to be 50 in a couple, so yeah, I would say, look, and that thing is exciting, you know, they say, yeah, let's do it the way that I used to do. And that's great. But when you adapt, you know, there's this dissonance a little bit, you're not used to what's happening. It shakes you up a little bit. But at the end of it, I promise you it's exciting. it opens up so many doors, there's opportunities everywhere, and you're like, what is going on? And I'm glad, you know, I'm a dinosaur. And so I think that that'll help. I mean the always, always good ways, no doubt about that, but sometimes the new path, you know, there's, there's opportunities that we never thought with that before. So I think I'd recommend training all the new pads for anybody out there dinosaurs. So, so Miriam has given us another question for you and she wants to know which I think is a very interesting question. How do you learn the communication style of your clients? not usually you pay attention basically to work to, to, to the body language, to the tone, to their wives, to their, all of those things. Again, there's this, you can get on LinkedIn. There's lots of people that can help you with each one or every aspect of it. That's like looking at this profiles, you know, there's looking at my breaks just to find out what kind of people they are, but usually it's just understanding. If you come from a place, if you come from a place that you are empathetic and you understand other people and you respect yourself as well. You know, you're there doing a job that's out there to help other people, people will connect with you. And it's just matching that kind of thing, understanding where they're coming from. you see somebody who is stressed. You don't want to be bubbly and giggly, right. If you see somebody who's like really stress, cause you're not sure what happened. I love, I've spoken to people who have, you know, they're in school and they're like, yeah, my dad passed me 40 years ago. and I'm glad that I didn't come in there all bubbly and happy and things like that because when I entered the door, I could see he was stressed. Match that kind of thing. So that's kind of just understanding other people, paying attention to body language, paying attention to facial, you know, how they move, what they do. Just pay attention to all of that. When you talk to people, I think that shows empathy that shows, you know, understanding and people that come in. Okay, good. So Miriam's going to press you a little more. Go for it. She says school leadership teams and administrators are beyond busy. What would be your first three key pointers to make the first introduction and get their attention? Yeah, I wish I knew the answer to that. I've been trying, I think every human being is different, but again, recognizing that they are super busy, right. So you've got maybe 5-10 seconds to call the attention and then we'll forward. And that's, I think that's what anybody who's running, any organization, you don't have much time with them. but I think it's just following a multi-pronged. So using different styles, probably send them an email, maybe a week later, send them another email. So they get familiar with the name. Then it gets familiar with the company, you know, the email, keep it short and sweet. the third time try calling them, You may or may not leave them a voicemail, but if you call them and you get a voicemail and the name of your company and your name, usually when I get, when I leave a voicemail, my call goes something like this, Hey, sorry. I missed you. I'm sending an email look out for Thomas from so-and-so company I I do. That is the whole idea of the voicemail is again, they recognize the name of the organization. They recognize your name, calling somebody and not leaving a voicemail for me is like a tree falling down in the forest side. You're not sure if they heard you or not, but the whole idea is to create familiar familiarity with the customer. So you keep doing that. And then after you call, you didn't get through you send them another email. But in that other email, you send maybe a link to. Something that might help them something that's of interest to them. Right. So some articles say, maybe here's how you take 12 minutes out of your day, out of your busy day to, you know, do some meditation, do some mindfulness and things like that. So it's not completely, always about your stuff. It's again, trying to give back and trying to help them with something that they might be visiting. And also like again, the admin assistants and the secretaries make friends. with them Be nice to them and try to get to know them and, you know, that they can be a ticket in as well. So I hope that helps us. Let's let's take it one step further. after watching, my friend, our friend now probably Pablo Pablo's friends, they're really public Gonzales. He's got a great show. and one of the shows was about, leveraging video. And I've started doing this as well. I'm not sure truly how people feel about it, but I do send a lot of like bloom videos that are 30 seconds or a minute long. My, my training is in broadcast journalism. So I can, you know, chunk those 10 minute emails down to 30 seconds pretty easily and feel very comfortable. So what about using, you've talked about email short emails. You talked about a phone. You know, to direct them back to the email. What about using video? Have you started using video? I actually have, an actually this last week, I actually set out, 16 years and against shot, 30 to 40 seconds. It was 60, not too many, but 60. Yeah. but they were short. They were like 40, 40 seconds long. Right? Again, it all depends on your audience. It depends, you know, they'll feed out of the 60. I had 30 people who opened up the email, but only four people looked at the video. So that tells you, you know, what I spend about, I would say about five, five and a half hours to put all that together. And so, you know, the platform yet. Yeah. So it's yeah, it depends, again, it all depends on how much time you got, you know, whether you want to personalize it. It depends on which, which part of the sales cycle, you know? so I think my, my recommendation. If you're targeting, if you're doing a targeted emails, like a dark targeted context, like you pick out 20 of your top customers that you want to go and meet, you know, do your research and then put that video together where you connect with them. talk about some of the challenges that you've seen. So for example, if it's a school you want to look up the website, the newsletter, look at what their priorities are. Look at their state report cards, those kinds of things. So put all that information together and make it more personalized. That thing you might get better returns on that. Yeah, Joyce, who's our organizing your community here. Joyce, if you want to put Ethan's book in here, a human centered communication. I can't pronounce his last name. I think it's Butte. I watched them on Pablo show and I think that people might find that interesting in terms of, you know, maybe this is something to think about emails. Voicemails we get, but how can we start using in the sales process video? because you know, it's people get to see your face. They get to know you a little bit sooner, and here hear that voice and see the face. So I don't know, Joyce, if we can pop that in there. either, it seems like a good dude and he's onto something. So not take us on a tangent, but video messaging, I think is something that is good in sales, it's different and it could possibly get, you know, you want to differentiate yourself out of that 40% increase in emails that people are getting. Right. and this is one way to try and do it. So yeah, for sure. I'd recommend going and trying it at least, you know, absolutely. So tell us you're a powerhouse when it comes to selling and inspiring and all the above going from sweeping floors all the way up, but there might be people who are listening to you right now who just don't have the courage to start something, to keep it growing. Can you inspire them? You know, That's life and Joe is not very easy and, things come at you and you know, there's a lot of things that comes out here, but I think the one thing that's really powerful is your inner voice that has more power view than anything else or anybody else. so start, start with the good world. Tell you, you can't do it. It's you, when you talk to yourself saying, yeah, I don't think I can. you know, you making the assumption, well, I don't want to make this call today because I think, you know, he would get pissed off at me. So it's all your inner voice talking. But I think if you can just start slowly working on changing that voice, you know, I think I can do it. I got to figure out how to do it. I didn't turn into somebody who, you know, who could do great things just by. It wasn't a switch. It didn't happen in one day, one day, took me a few, at least a year or two to actually get like more than one aspire to that. I was conduit one. It's not going to happen. You know, it's not going to work. Don't want to do it. You know, all those costs, all those things. But it was me recognizing after point, I'm just talking to myself and then changing that conversation, my head to say, Hey, you know, why can't I do it? I think. And here's what I'm going to do it. And just having, you know, dialogue to go, you know, grow that into data, just be kind to yourself, talk, starting positive things to yourself, you know? And when you start doing that, you start hearing more of it, you know, you'll, it'll come become a reflex action when you try to approach something. Now, when I post something it's not, I can't do it. It's still number one is, do I want to do it? And then number two is okay. I figured out how to do it. That's what I keep saying to myself. I don't, I don't have a conversation in my head that goes anymore. Oh, that's too difficult. I can't do it. It's now do I want to, yeah. Okay. Then I'll figuring out how to do it. So that's the idea. Just keep building that inner voice, keep talking positive stuff to yourself. Right? You needed, we all needed to just keep, keep staying at to yourself and it, it is true. What you, what you think will manifest. So yeah, I hope that inspires somebody. So when, so when people come into those roadblocks, the first you said, I can do it, but second, you said, figure out how to do it. What if you find a roadblock there, what's the way out of that. you know, if the doors. by the window, you know, and the windows aren't working and, you know, come back and go, go try to the kitchen. You know, like it started giving up. That is an answer for everything. it, you, you, you got to keep going, you got to keep boring. You know, there's people have escaped from prisons or them is not meant to be, you know, that couldn't be broken out of. So if, if, if your mind wants it and you. There's always a, there's always a way there's always a path. You know, you just have to find it, take some time and be frustrated and do all kinds of things to you. But. Just the idea of like, I'm just going to keep at it. You know, I'm going to figure it out, how to do it. They said I can't do that. Great. Thanks then that's not the person I need to be talking to. Let me talk to this bus. Hey, do you think I can? And that's kind of how I've kind of moved it. I initially started with people telling me absolutely not. There's no way. And I'm like, okay, Hey, what do you think? Oh, maybe you can try this. Cool. I'll try that. What do you think? And so that's, it's a step-by-step process. It's slow maybe. Just, you know, you understand that that's what you wanna do. Go ahead and do it. Just keep at it. You will find a way it's worked for me and I don't work for everybody else. Yeah. Jackie, Thomas is a modern day. Andy do frames from shotgun. He's going to break on through pandemic. Ain't going to stop this guy. He's not only, but he's Andy to frame. And he helps the other prisoners. Right. And he helps, his kids, you know, learn online. He helps the, the, you know, the guy who almost had to shut his book business down. He helps him out of the jail. So he's our modern day. Andy do frame. Yeah. Hello? Yeah. Wow. So, so I would like, I would like you to give us, please some takeaways that you can inspire us with right now, putting you on the spot. Yeah. I'm so inspired. I want one more, again, it's be, be, be kind to others, but especially. karma is a real thing. Absolutely. in a, what you put out in the world, it will come back to you. I've seen it happen to me, blow my brains out in terms of the way it's happened. and that's probably another story for another episode, but that's, that's the, one of the things that I'm telling you it's karma is absolutely always, always, always. You know, nothing we can move forward unless you do the work. So you can learn as much as you want to learn, and you can listen to whatever you want to listen to, but you got to do the work. So just develop the discipline to do that work and be consistent with it, you know, fall off the wagon as many times as you'd like, and that's completely okay. You know, get back up my backbends, broken a few times at the build a wheel and, you know, climb up again and start moving. Just keep it one step at a time, 1% a day, 1% a day, you know, it will get you ready to go at some point. So yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. 100%. Yeah. Joyce, Joyce, put your LinkedIn link in the chat. And she also says that Tom's takeaways are up to 1001 takeaways at this point. So, you know, unfortunately we are running out of time. So is there anything first Josh, you would like to add. No, I, I would, well, yes, I would suggest, that everybody truly follow. We've never done this on the show, but, but honestly connect with Thomas. it's good for him and it's good for you and it's good for the rest of the world. And you can see what, you know, these inspiring quotes as they go from 1001 to 2001 and all the way up to who knows where. And then every Sunday he tells you about. all these awesome webinars and, and, you know, places he's going to be online and shows you that, that there's just so much to learn online. And we're passionate about that. So I encourage everybody to, to connect with Thomas the way I did it was really helpful in my life. And Thomas. Yeah. you know, just continued learning, you know, always trying to help people around you. there's always a way, you know, you just have to want it and hopefully I hope you all get where you need to go. Oh, yeah. And we have a nice comment from the audience who says, thank you so much. They're looking forward to looking at, your takeaways every Sunday. So I want to thank you both Josh from click two and Thomas Joseph. Thank you for your inspiration today. Excellent. Thank you guys. Thank you. Yeah. And we'll see everyone next week in lifelong learners, Wednesday at 11:30 AM. Eastern standard time. Bye guys.