28 - Creating the Life You Want: Morgan J. Ingram's Guide to Breaking Through the Noise

Morgan J. Ingram is a renowned sales leader, speaker, and podcaster. He is the founder of JBarrows Sales Training and the host of The SDR Chronicles podcast. Morgan is known for his expertise in sales and personal branding, and he is passionate about helping others break through the noise and negativity to live their best lives.

Morgan emphasizes the importance of personal branding in creating a strong presence in the marketplace and differentiating oneself from others. Morgan highlights the power of self-awareness and the need to overcome negative thoughts and beliefs to create the life you want. He also discusses strategies for holding oneself accountable and continuously learning and growing.

**Key Takeaways:**

- Adding a personal touch, such as a middle initial, to your name can help you stand out and overcome SEO challenges.
- Personal branding is essential for creating a strong presence in your marketplace and differentiating yourself from others.
- Self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and success. Evaluate your goals, values, and passions to create the life you want.
- Holding yourself accountable requires prioritizing your energy and focusing on tasks that align with your goals and values.
- Continuous learning and growth are essential for personal and professional development. Take the time to learn new skills and expand your knowledge.

**Quotes:**

- "I added the 'J' to my name to overcome SEO challenges and ensure that I could be found online." - Morgan J. Ingram
- "Personal branding is about creating a strong presence in your marketplace and differentiating yourself from others." - Morgan J. Ingram
- "Self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and success. Evaluate your goals, values, and passions to create the life you want." - Morgan J. Ingram
- "Holding yourself accountable requires prioritizing your energy and focusing on tasks that align with your goals and values." - Morgan J. Ingram
- "Continuous learning and growth are essential for personal and professional development. Take the time to learn new skills and expand your knowledge." - Morgan J. Ingram

**The Evolution of Personal Goals and Content Creation**

- Morgan's initial goals for personal branding were to avoid writing resumes, be quick and agile in getting opportunities, get speaking engagements, impact the community, and create content for business opportunities.
- His current goals include inspiring the younger version of himself, demonstrating how to do things without being sleazy or gimmicky, and creating content to transition to the next level and attract like-minded individuals.
- Morgan blocks out a day each month to create content, ensuring he has a consistent flow of posts. He prefers to have content pre-programmed rather than deciding what to post each day.
- He is currently in a transition period where he is exploring new content that speaks to his evolving goals and audience. This period has been challenging but necessary for growth.
- Morgan's favorite movie is Avatar, which he admires for its storytelling and visual effects. He appreciates how the movie weaves different elements together to create an immersive experience.

******************Chapters:******************

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:06 The Importance of the 'J' in Morgan J. Ingram
00:18 The Story Behind the 'J'
01:01 Overcoming the SEO Challenge
01:24 The Impact of Adding the 'J'
01:58 The Power of Personal Branding
02:41 The Meaning of 'J' and Personal Connections
03:50 Morgan's Personal Description
04:03 The Importance of Loyalty and Commitment
05:31 Creating the Life You Want
30:14 The Importance of Continuous Learning
30:42 Making Time for Learning
31:14 The Power of Self-Education
32:14 Learning from the Masters: Spielberg and Actors
32:31 The Art of Acting and Storytel

Transcript

Jason Yarborough: 0:25

Alright, Morgan, Jay to the Ingram. Welcome to the show, my man.

Morgan J. Ingram: 0:30

Yeah. Well, first of all, I already love this show. Cause you said the J we could talk about why the J is important, but,

Jason Yarborough: 0:35

Oh, I want to hear that.

Morgan J. Ingram: 0:37

I'm glad you said the J

Sam Yarborough: 0:38

Well, let's just start with that.

Jason Yarborough: 0:39

Yeah, we're excited about this show and let's just start right with the Jay.

Morgan J. Ingram: 0:43

All right, y'all. So this is, this is going to sound a little morbid to be, to be transparent before I go into this. And I'm going to tell you why. So I was in a personal brand workshop. This was back in like 2015. And I was just learning about it. Like I was like, I know this is important in the future, whole entire thing. So they said, okay, first exercises, we need to Google your name. Like, are you even out there? And I was like, okay, that's good exercise. So I Googled it. Are y'all familiar with Dr. Phil?

Sam Yarborough: 1:10

yeah.

Morgan J. Ingram: 1:11

Okay. Okay. Some people don't know. I was like, I'm just making sure. So Googled it. And it was Morgan Ingram died. And it's all this stuff about how Morgan Ingram has like died and committed suicide from this Dr. Phil show. So there's like 10 pages worth of this. And so I'm like, there's no way I'm ever going to surpass this, right?

Sam Yarborough: 1:32

SEO is

Morgan J. Ingram: 1:33

Like, yeah, it's over. So I was like, okay, what should I do? And so the guy sitting next to me was like, why don't you add your middle initial to your name on all your stuff? So then it comes up as Morgan J. Ingram instead of Morgan Ingram. And I was like, okay, that's a subtle change. It's not anything too crazy. I don't have to change my name. So that's the reason why I added the J. So for like everything that I would do, it'd be the most diva person. I was like, guys, you got to add the J. People were like, why? I was like, I don't want to tell you, like, just add the J.

Jason Yarborough: 1:59

Because of Google and Dr. Phil.

Morgan J. Ingram: 2:01

Google and Dr. Phil, I had to change it. Now if you type in Morganium, I do appear. So that, I'm, I'm, I'm happy about that. We

Sam Yarborough: 2:07

You've beat the system,

Morgan J. Ingram: 2:08

Yeah, yeah, I've passed the threshold now. I've created enough and I've been out there for a little bit now. So it's

Jason Yarborough: 2:14

took eight years.

Morgan J. Ingram: 2:15

Yeah, you know, it was a grind. But now if you type in Morganium, I am there. So

Jason Yarborough: 2:21

I love it. Yeah, no.

Sam Yarborough: 2:22

just part of the deal now. I love that. I think if you Google, I haven't done it in a while, so I'm going to take this as homework, but Sam, Samantha Yarbrough is a stripper, so I have some work to do.

Morgan J. Ingram: 2:34

You also

Jason Yarborough: 2:35

knew that.

Sam Yarborough: 2:36

Yes.

Jason Yarborough: 2:37

There's a, there is a, uh, a great Jason Yarbrough down in Dallas, Texas, who's got quite the rap sheet and it's got to be if we're getting arrested for meth or something along those lines. Because if you look at his picture, you're just like, wow. And if you're listening, Mr. Yarbrough, I apologize for that reference.

Morgan J. Ingram: 2:51

work to

Sam Yarborough: 2:52

Sam, like, Go get it, girl, but not my jam.

Jason Yarborough: 2:56

I found that just Yarby works the easiest for me. It's like, you know, Jason Yarbrough is, you know, out there, but Yarby is easy to define and find. So

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:03

Oh, I love this.

Jason Yarborough: 3:05

That's

Sam Yarborough: 3:05

so wait, but we can't move on. If you will share, what does J stand for?

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:09

It stands for Joseph.

Sam Yarborough: 3:11

Okay.

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:12

Yes.

Sam Yarborough: 3:12

got a lot of J's in

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:13

Joseph out of the Joseph out of the Bible is what they named it after. It's funnier because a lot of people thought I made it up. They were like, Oh, you just put the J in there for no reason. I was like, no, like it actually stands

Sam Yarborough: 3:22

I have a middle name.

Jason Yarborough: 3:24

just rolls off the tongue so nicely.

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:26

does. It was my, my parents set me up very nicely with that one.

Sam Yarborough: 3:29

They

Jason Yarborough: 3:30

fun fact, all the, all the boys in the Yarborough family all start with J. So our, our son starts with a J and our daughter, her middle initial is J. So there's J's all throughout our family.

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:42

Are y'all, I know we got

Sam Yarborough: 3:43

doesn't have one.

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:45

So this is going to make y'all laugh even more. We're all named after Ms.

Jason Yarborough: 3:50

Are you? That's

Morgan J. Ingram: 3:53

I'm not even kidding. Morgan, Matthew and Miles.

Jason Yarborough: 3:57

Oh, that's great. Yeah, look at us already having so much in common. So close in the alphabet,

Morgan J. Ingram: 4:02

I love it. I love this already.

Jason Yarborough: 4:04

Oh man, this was meant to

Sam Yarborough: 4:06

Morgan, let's get right into this. I think most of our listeners are familiar with you on LinkedIn. If not, Get on LinkedIn, go follow Morgan. For those of you who don't know Morgan, us personally, who are you to your friends? How would your friends describe you?

Morgan J. Ingram: 4:25

Loyal and committed to the cause. So when I'll describe that so loyal as in like I will do anything for my friends. Anything like I got their back. I have a close circle of friends. I shout out to my dad like. He said this to me and it changed every, every thing. I think about friends. He was like, Morgan, like you always see a friends, but you really don't. Those are acquaintances. It's like, you only, only have a really true, like few amount of real friends. And so it made me really evaluate and look at who I had in my life that I keep close to. Those are my friends. Those are my people. And then outside of that, their acquaintances, people I see, like, I'm not, I don't, I don't like you. It was just like, yo, what up? Hey, but I don't know you on that. You can only really have

Jason Yarborough: 5:10

you're not dropping everything you can do to go help them.

Morgan J. Ingram: 5:12

No, no. And then committed to the cause. Like, my friends will tell you, like, if I'm focused on something, I will go all out. I will fly to find information. I will go to the library. I will buy the books. I will go beat the people. They know if I'm committed to something, I will go all in. So they know when I'm focused on something. They know that's just who I am. And so, those are the two things. If you were to ask them, that would be it.

Jason Yarborough: 5:34

I could say some of that kind of stems through and like the content you put out there and especially around, like, you know, when you get into something, you know, going back to like your, your SDR days and how you're going to go all in on that and learn, teach and grow and build from there, you know, into what you're doing now, which we'll get into in a little bit. So you can definitely see how that comes through and every bit of who you are, which is awesome. So piggyback on top of that, we'll get into it. So like, let's, uh, let's get, let's get some listeners fired up around what you're, what you're into right now around creating the life you want. Right. So have you pulled some stuff out of your LinkedIn? We'd love to do a little bit of research, right? And you've got a mission, which we love, and I'm going to read it so that it'll mess it up. So you said my mission is to live my best, most empowered life and help others do the same by showing them how to break through the noise in their marketplace. And most importantly. the negativity in their head. First of all, you got a mission. So when did Morgan J. Ingram decided he needed a mission? And how did you come to this one?

Morgan J. Ingram: 6:33

Um, my, my freshman year in college, which most people are doing the opposite of their freshman right. Um, I just, to be

Jason Yarborough: 6:44

Quit attacking.

Morgan J. Ingram: 6:45

uh, if you, if you were to talk to my friends that have known me for like a long time, middle school, high school, I just did not care. Like school is whatever. Like I played sports. I was, I was good at basketball. And that was, that was that, but I, I wasn't the person that was like, I want to go to this college. I was just like, cool, college, whatever. Where's the party at? That was me. I was like, you know, like that was, that's literally all I cared about. And I remember getting into freshman year and talking to my cousin and he was like, why don't you like just shoot for the presence list? He's like, if you go make presence list, I'll give you 200. I was like, okay, that's, I was like, all right, cool, man.

Jason Yarborough: 7:22

money. Freshmen in college.

Morgan J. Ingram: 7:23

Yeah. I was like, all right, that's like a millionaire, right? Like I'm going to be balling. So I was like, that's cool. So basically I like. Just started committing more into learning and to getting those good grades. But then as I got more into it, I started meeting other people that also were excelling for those grades. And it made me actually identify and realize there's so much to life than just what I was doing. which was like hanging out, partying, whatever, like just kind of coasting existing. And as I met other people, I was like, wow, like, wait, hold up. Like you can, cause we didn't grow up like at a super, like, well, if we're at home for context, like I went to like a private school. So I saw people driving like the homies, the BMWs at like 16 years old. But I thought that was something that you were just like born into. I didn't think that you could actually go get it. I just thought it was like, Oh, this is just my life, whatever. But it wasn't until I got to college and I saw people like saying, no, like this is how you work to get those things. Here's how you do that. And I just had negative voices in my own head because I thought that it wasn't obtainable because I wasn't selected when I was born. When I realized it actually was a path to get there. And so then that's when everything changed for me. Um, ended up making the presence list at all, at all A's. And then at that point I was like, but where's, what could I do more than just school? And so that's when I started getting into more like personal development. I went to the library like almost every single day. I just started figuring out like, what are, what are things that I could do more than I'm already doing right now? And then that's what took me on that journey. And the cool thing about life is that like, you can actually do whatever you want at any time. Nothing is inherently stopping you unless like, there's obviously like some barriers. You may have other things in your life that happened to you. Like, and I understand that, but like for the most, for the majority of people listening in, you could do whatever you want. Like I tell my friends at the end of the day, like. Yo, go to the Delta app, go click in any location. You could go buy the ticket.

Jason Yarborough: 9:11

That's

Morgan J. Ingram: 9:11

stop at you buying for the ticket. As long as you have the resources, you can go anywhere. Right. And so that's how I think about life. It's like at any point in time, I can decide how I want to show up and who do I want to be, do I have to make changes and sacrifices? Sure. But in college, it really showed me that like, wait, this is, this is endless and I could do this for myself, which empowers others to do the same thing.

Jason Yarborough: 9:31

That's incredible. Especially at such a, such a young age. And I think, you know, I think I'm older than both of you by about 10 years. So I can say this, like someone of your age currently. As young as you are with the mindset and mentality that you currently have, like that sets you apart by, I would say decades, especially in the, in the business context, the entrepreneur context, much as it did in college, which I'm sure it sets you apart from your peers by, by a long shot, created quite the gap and allows you to excel in everything that you're doing. And I love the fact that, you know, early on, I got, I probably didn't learn this till about five years ago is that you're. Your mental fortitude is what carries you through just about every endeavor that you've got, right? So like, how are you still abiding by this mission and maintain that mental fortitude, you know, even today? Like, what are you practicing?

Morgan J. Ingram: 10:25

So. This is this one's gonna creep y'all out. This creeps a lot. This one creeps a lot of people out But I gotta tell y'all about

Jason Yarborough: 10:31

Probably not us.

Morgan J. Ingram: 10:32

this changes the game float tanks

Jason Yarborough: 10:35

Okay.

Morgan J. Ingram: 10:36

I will I live and die by the float tank now I go every quarter You can go every week. I know some people I show to they're going every week. I I it's such a

Sam Yarborough: 10:51

That's a left turn. It does.

Morgan J. Ingram: 10:53

Well, okay, here's why it's creepy because like I'll like post it on my Instagram. Like, Hey, I'm going to this thing. It looks like you're heading into a coffin you close. Here's the thing. You close the door on yourself. So the way that I interpret it is like you are going inside of this. Tomb. Right. And you are closing the door on yourself. But what you're doing though is all the previous context in person that you were before will inevitably die inside of this tank because you're going to come out at renewed because you're going to have a new perspective on life because you're sitting there in darkness by yourself. Like I've done this up for like two hours and a half. I've sat in there myself, but most people aren't willing to do this because They're not happy with the thoughts and the questions they ask themselves. And they'd rather not figure out the answers to these questions. They'd rather just coast and just go do their thing. I'm extremely comfortable with myself at this point where I can sit in there for two hours and be good. I don't need other things. I actually prefer it, but it allows you to really hear what you really need to do at the end of the day. If you sit somewhere for an hour and you have no technology and you sit there. You'll get a pulse check of what you need to do because there's a voice deep down. That's going to tell you, what do you believe in? Right? So like, I just know the spirit's going to give me the answer and like, I'm going to figure out what to do from there. And so that is actually how I remain very like centered and focus on those things. Float takes the number one, uh, number two, I do chirotherapy. So I go in the ice box every week. Uh, and that allows me to just have better breathing, better focus, heart rate, all those different things. Right. So that's really critical. And then I know people journal. Um, but I do video journaling, so I do it for myself, but I also at this point, I actually do it with my team. So I will send them a video of like where I'm actually at. I think most founders and again, I'm not like super, super deep in the game. I'm not saying I have like 10 figure business, but what I'm telling you though is most people don't communicate where they're actually as a founder. The founder at the end of the day, right, or the executive team steers the ship of where you're going. So if you, if the founder's not telling you like mentally where they're at, it's going to be all over the place. So I find it being helpful to share that via video, but I also do the video journal for myself because as long as you are self aware on who you are and what you're looking to do, and you're constantly checking into it yourself, that's important because most people check in with others to check about themselves, which is wrong.

Sam Yarborough: 13:11

Okay. So I have, I knew this conversation was going to go this direction because I've, I literally when Jason said we got Morgan Ingram, I was like, I don't want to talk about business at all. Like I have so many questions for him. So I'm super pumped about this. I'm curious. Two questions. One, what you just talked about is. In a form meditation, would you call it that?

Morgan J. Ingram: 13:37

Yeah, I would say meditation, some prayer. I think for me, like, I would say like everyone has their own place where they find church and they find holistic, uh, the holistic overview of themselves. Float tank for me is like going to church and like getting in a deep meditative prayer state for sure.

Sam Yarborough: 13:53

Okay, part two of that question, you even mentioned this, a lot of people are even afraid to go to that space, um, to take that initial step. Were you, was this like, did you have to work up to this? Or have you always been able to like, I'm going to go sit with my thoughts for two hours?

Morgan J. Ingram: 14:08

Uh, okay. So my friend Scott Barker told me about this.

Jason Yarborough: 14:13

Okay. Another scout.

Morgan J. Ingram: 14:14

And, uh, he was like, yo, dude, I went to the float tank. It was bonkers. I was like, okay, like bonkers, like good or bonkers. Like you're like mentally insane and I need to come get you. Like what?

Jason Yarborough: 14:26

Sounds like both and.

Morgan J. Ingram: 14:29

Right. Are you good? And he's like, yeah, man. Like you need to, he's like, you need to go. And like, you know, he's a, he's a good friend. So I was like, all right, dude, I'll go first 10 minutes. I freaked out. I freaked out because, because for me and some people, y'all actually might relate to this. My brain is going a thousand miles per hour. Like there are so many ideas. There's so many concepts. I also can like, I go into a room, I could read or energy whole entire thing. So I'm literally being inundated all the time. So it's, it was actually very hard for me to sleep, which is why I started chirotherapy so I could sleep better. And so now that now in the first 10 minutes, I was like just losing it, but I was like, I just need to ease in. Like, can I get my brain to just chill for a minute? And so once it got to 20 minutes in. It was the best thing ever because now I was able to like really hear myself that gets scary because then it's like you have to ask yourself some real questions because it's only you, there are no distractions. The reason why people, most people, I'm not saying all do like a Netflix or have video games or, you know, even have a partner is to distract themselves from their own questions that they're asking themselves, but they can evade because they don't spend time with themselves.

Jason Yarborough: 15:43

Yeah,

Morgan J. Ingram: 15:43

So if you're in there forcing function by yourself, you now have to ask yourself the hard questions you don't want to do. Why am I doing this? Why am I at a job? I don't like, like, why am I even with this person I'm with right now that I actually don't like it's because I don't want to be alone. You start asking yourself those questions and you have to realize, do I want to really figure out those answers? And that's why most people leave. So at the 21, 20 minute mark, I will start asking myself some real questions. But once I found out those answers, I was like, wow, okay. Like I have some work to do. But it was exciting work because it was the inner work that most people will never do. But I was like, I don't want to live my life not doing that. And I have something called the anti why we can dive into what that means. But like, that was the reason for me.

Sam Yarborough: 16:27

I mean, I think that's so powerful, and I love this conversation, because recently, I've started to uncover the power of meditation. Like you just said it, everybody has a different word for it. I think it's all the same premise, but the, the beauty of this is you have to start to ask yourself those questions. And then for the first time, maybe ever, you understand that there are questions to be asking. And then the scary part is the accountability of. I knew the question to ask now, like it's to your coming full circle to your point earlier, it's up to me. There's nothing else. That's holding me back. And I have no more excuses on like, why my life is the way it is.

Jason Yarborough: 17:09

Keeping yourself accountable is the hardest person to keep accountable.

Sam Yarborough: 17:12

No doubt. So I've been to, um. Again, a LinkedIn post, you clearly are a thought leader on LinkedIn, but you posted the other day, um, questions that you ask yourself to find your path. And first of all, I think that in and of itself is super powerful. A lot of times people are like, well, I want that, but that can be abstract and there's not like subcategories of why. Or how you're going to get there or what that means so really quickly not to belabor the point But I did really love these questions. So what lifestyle do I envision and how do I build around them? How can I revisit what I love doing as a kid? What do I want to master over the next decade? Do I want to build solo or lead a team? And what legacy can I create to pass down? So first of all, how did you determine that these were even the right questions to ask?

Morgan J. Ingram: 18:07

That, that's, that's the chat GPT. No, I'm just kidding. Um,

Sam Yarborough: 18:12

The Lord and savior chat GTP.

Morgan J. Ingram: 18:15

yeah, it's a, I actually created all these questions that had nothing to do with me. Um, no, but, but all serious, it's actually the real answer actually stemming from the float tank. So let me actually bring something that's important here. So if anyone has been doing the float tank or wants to try it, if it's your first time, I wouldn't actually suggest what I'm about to tell you, unless you want to do it, but if you've been going for a while, this is how you actually make it a productive session. So what I will do is I write down all the stuff that's in my head in my iPhone notes before I go in now, all that is a center of focus. Exactly. It's a center of focus for me. So I literally will like envision in my head, the list that I put down and I'm like, what are the answers to these things? Then once I'm done with the list, then I roam. So essentially one of the things that I was contemplating and trying to figure out, um, but actually it was out here in Arizona when I was doing it, I was like, what questions do I want to ask myself in order to get the answers to figure out what I actually want to do? And those five came up because they're centered around like what you actually want to do as a person. One thing to be transparent that I. I started to do that I didn't like to do is I was basing my decisions and behaviors off of another person or people,

Jason Yarborough: 19:30

Yep.

Morgan J. Ingram: 19:31

which then I have. Right. And then you have a subconscious resentment towards those things. You don't fully show up. So those five questions, if you look at them are all centered around, what does, what does the person want to do selfishly, which is it's okay in this realm to be selfish because you live with yourself a hundred percent of the time, right? So you want to do something you actually want to do. And so that's why I was asking those questions because. I, the question I had before one of the flip take was what were the, what are the questions I need to ask myself to figure out what I actually want to do that has nothing to do with anybody else. And then those came to mind. So that's how I came up with them.

Sam Yarborough: 20:08

I love that.

Jason Yarborough: 20:09

I love Yeah. Go ahead. This is, this is so wild. It's like this morning I was actually thinking the same thing. I was doing my meditation practice and thinking about the questions that I want to ask myself, right? What do I want to be doing? Recently started my own endeavor. It's like what I want that to look like. But, uh, there's a, there's a particular point in there that I like what you're making is that basically building what you want to build and being comfortable enough with yourself to build that right. And you can't get there. Until you spend that time with yourself and you can't get to that point where what other people are thinking, what other people are saying you should be doing that doesn't matter anymore because you've spent so much time with yourself, you're so comfortable with yourself that you know what I'm going to do, what I feel like the universe, God, whatever it might be, is leading you down the path to do, and that only matters once you understand what matters to you and you can't get that until you figure out really Who you are when you're alone with yourself. So like there's, there's a lot of, there's so much that comes out of doing that deep work that I think most people don't understand or don't dig into. And so like spending that time alone, I like the fact that you write down kind of the thoughts, what's in your head before going into it, I've read some stuff about the power of doing that before you go to sleep and like writing down what's in your head or even like what you want to come into existence. Like write it down before you go to sleep. So that is constantly playing over in your head. Yeah, there you go. I know manifesting is a big thing in this house. Right. And so like this kind of the same principle. And I think all of that can be applied to, you know, life business, the context of like what we talk about here in relationships and partnerships. It can all come true. So like, no question that the fact that like, I think you're doing the deep work and a lot of others can learn. From what you're doing. I wish I had started doing the deep work 10 years ago. It'd be in a completely different place now.

Sam Yarborough: 22:11

Rude.

Jason Yarborough: 22:12

so I think the ride you're on, well, no, like 10 years ago now is that's why I make the reference. It was like, you're, you're 10 years ago where I am.

Morgan J. Ingram: 22:25

appreciate it.

Sam Yarborough: 22:26

So. Along these lines, though, I think, first of all, knowing, knowing yourself to know to ask the right questions is step one and really important. But I would be curious to know, like, okay, you've asked these questions, you've clearly thought through them and you have good answers to them. Now, how are you, Morgan J. Ingram, holding yourself accountable to these? Like life happens. It's easy to like see a shiny object and move away from your true north. So what are you actually doing to like move towards this?

Morgan J. Ingram: 23:00

So movement is energy, right? That's about as that's the most scientific thing you're going to get from me because I was terrible science, but I know that to be true. So. Yeah, that's what he said. So we're going to go sign him. So, uh, shout out to, I'm going to shout out to John Barrows on this one. So we worked together for three and a half years. Right. And one thing that we always talked about was where do you get the most excited when it comes to your energy? So instead of having it, so most people have like a time audit, but we would do energy audits. So we would like, look at like our calendar, like what gets us really excited that we're a big part of. And when we look at our calendar, like, I absolutely hate that I'm about to do this. And there are things that you have to do that, like, you, you're not going to get excited about, but for the most part, it's like, how can you do that the most? So why am I saying all these things? So if we go back to the lifestyle question. If you are doing something that is the opposite of the lifestyle that you want, it is going to be very difficult for you to actually accomplish what you just said. So if you said, Hey, I want to, I'll give you my prime example. I like, I want to experience and travel the world. I want to do 35 countries, try to turn 35. I like being active. I like traveling. That's me, but if I was like, but I'm going to go build something where we have an office and I go every single day, that doesn't make sense. So now the more that I get away from what that thing is, I'm going to drain my energy, which means I need to figure out how to change that to like elevate my energy because it's towards the goal that I set. So how I think about things is. You just mentioned writing things up before you go to bed. I write down all the tasks or action items I need to do for the next day That then are leading to the energy outputs that I need to hit the goals that I need to go hit So I always look at is my energy moving in the right direction? Which means I'm moving towards the direction of what I need to do at the end of the day, because that's the way you have to hold yourself accountable is like, is my energy actually moving in the right way? Cause if it's not, that means that you're doing something that isn't aligned with what you said you were going to do. You're not going to feel right. It's going to be off. You're gonna be like, what are we doing here? There are, there are scenarios where you'll feel. Nervous or afraid, but that's a different energy than being drained. So make sure to recognize that, uh, cause they're not the same thing. So I just hold myself accountable. I know I have tasks and things that I do on a daily basis, but also I know that these goals are my lifestyle, what I want. And then I know if I don't reach those goals, I will ultimately be disappointed in myself. That's really what it comes down to, right? I don't, I don't want that. So I hold myself accountable to those things.

Sam Yarborough: 25:33

Okay. So I'm fully in alignment with everything you're saying. Can we talk about, forecasting on some listeners. Maybe there's some people who are like, I'm in a job. I don't love, I'm kind of stuck here. How do we like take our, the reality of our life, like our situation and change our energy to move towards something like for you, they can look at you and be like, well, that's easy. You're a founder. You can like choose your own life. You can build your own life. You did the work to get there for somebody who's like, but that's not my reality now. What would you say to them?

Jason Yarborough: 26:09

How do you, how do you flip the script starting today?

Morgan J. Ingram: 26:12

Okay. So I'm going to add this contextual barrier. Cause I already know what's going to happen. I don't have kids and I'm not married. So everything I'm about to say here, like you're going to be like, ah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I, I understand that.

Sam Yarborough: 26:22

kids and we are married. It's still possible. Yes, writing

Morgan J. Ingram: 26:27

guys can back me when I'm going to say what I'm going to say and give the context, okay, because I don't. And so people are like, Oh, well, you know, I'm like, okay, well, whatever. So, um, I'll give a prime example. I was an SDR and I, you know, obviously I do the cold calls, cold emails, all that stuff, right. And I, and I created a YouTube channel while I was still an SDR. And how did I do that? I wasn't doing anything at work. I did everything at work, but I would leave work. I'd literally go home and edit and do all the interviews after work. And I would stay, I would actually work on the weekend in the office to edit and create new videos. So my, my thing is, is that most people can get out of their situation. It is easier though to complain and say you're stuck because that's just an easy thing to do. Oh, i'm stuck and you can find other people who complain and you're cool with it But it's just going to require you to sacrifice something that you probably don't want to give up You probably again i'm not i'm not trying to hate on people this but you're probably watching like disney plus netflix And you're like, I don't have time, but you're wasting four hours watching this thing that inherently actually doesn't give you any value probably past like an hour or two. Like, yeah, I understand you probably decompress. I get that. But most people have an opportunity to go do something. They just need to start small where the problem is with social media is you see people doing things big. So you think you have to start massive when no, you just need to start small. Like, Hey, I want to go start this thing. Cool. Have like two conversations a week about like. Maybe ways to get started or like brainstorming your idea. Like these are things that you can do. And so my, my whole thing is that like, there are ways to look at your calendar and create time by eliminating things that are just wasting your time.

Jason Yarborough: 28:11

Yeah.

Morgan J. Ingram: 28:12

And so that's the, that's the way that I always look at it. Like, if I want to go do something, I'm just going to be like, all right, how do I create time to go do this? Because then if you don't do that, it's really not that important.

Jason Yarborough: 28:24

It's about putting the work in like, I think you're right. Like most people are, it's easier to make excuses as to why you can't. You know, we are definitely guilty of that at times, right? We've got two kids, so some days at eight o'clock at night when we come downstairs, all we can do is just sit there and stare at each other. It's like, What the hell just happened kind of thing, but also it's like, you know, being willing to put in the work and there's there's times where like, you know, we can support what you're saying by putting in the work. We're still putting in the work. There's a lot of times we put the kids down. We make sure that we're very present with the kids from like 5 to 7, 7 30, put them down to bed. And then we come downstairs and I'm either editing a video. Sam's working on a presentation or vice versa. And we're putting in the work for a couple of hours. Yeah, last night writing podcast scripts, so it's, it's about doing the work and this is, this is so wild. I don't know if you've read, uh, Discipline is, uh, Destiny, Ryan Holiday,

Morgan J. Ingram: 29:20

have not.

Jason Yarborough: 29:21

everything that the last two points you've been making, Movement Equals Energy. And putting in the work or the exact two chapters that I read this morning, that book, fantastic book, super easy read if you're a reader, but it's good stuff. He's talking all about that. So like right now, like you're very much challenging very existence of like what I'm thinking about right now as of this morning. So, uh, this is kind of wild and I'm over here taking notes like a listener.

Morgan J. Ingram: 29:47

I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll give you the most tactical example. Everybody in the world can do what I'm about to tell you. And this is actually how I started to, how I actually learn new skills or like, if I want to get into something. Okay. Everybody for the most part has been at least up to minimum high school of education. When you're in school. What do you do? They say, Hey Morgan, you got to go in science for it. I despise science as you can tell. Um, you gotta go in science and biology. You gotta be in this class for an hour. Okay. Dedicated time. You gotta be in this class and listen to some teacher, whatever. When you go to college, you have an hour, hour and a half, 45 minutes to put in what you pick. So you went to high school and college and you picked a schedule that you probably didn't care about and you learn about something that you probably don't remember. So why can't we do the same with things that we actually care about that would get us excited about life? That's the question. I want everyone to ask themselves. So don't, don't be like, Oh, I don't have time. It's like, why are you not willing to learn about something that you actually care about? When you learn, when you actually spent four or five years prop, right? You probably spent four or five years learning something you didn't care about. You don't remember. I want everyone to really think about that. And then it will change the way of being like, I don't have time. It's like. You had time to spend four years doing something you probably didn't care about. I mean, it's super transparent. You probably didn't care about it and you don't use it.

Jason Yarborough: 31:04

No, don't use any of it. Maybe, maybe some basic math.

Morgan J. Ingram: 31:07

exactly. So if you say, Hey, I'm going to block, I don't know, an hour a day to learn something 45 minutes a day, that could be doable for most people. And that's all I'm saying.

Jason Yarborough: 31:16

Yeah. No, we know the play. We know the script, what it looks like to block that time off and book a class. And we've often talked about doing stuff like this on like Tuesday nights. All right. So there's, there's opportunity there to, and you understand what it looks like from a school and schedule standpoint. So like, put the time in, what about you? Like, what are you, what are you doing to continue your, your learning and growing and dedicating that time.

Morgan J. Ingram: 31:40

So right now I'm really deep into like overall, what is a production look like? So a lot of things that we do, we're diamond tests, right? Amp is like virtual events. Activations in person, uh, really understanding media. That's where a lot of the marketing is going. So I'm, I'm aiming to understand that. And so, yeah, I watched a lot of interviews from Spielberg. I, I, what I actually, I'm actually watching a lot of stuff on how people promote movies. Cause if you think about that, how people promote movies, how you can promote a new podcast and you show whatever that may be. So I spend time like watching these. Videos on how to actually do that and being a founder. Like that's also leadership too. Those are those components. But I spent a lot of time understanding, like, how does production and how do these things work in terms of like promoting these things in media? And so, yeah, I have a YouTube channel that I ripped through. I listed on 1. 5 X and I just go.

Jason Yarborough: 32:36

God, that's great. Um, so very much a student of storytelling as well over here. I'm, I'm very curious, like what you're learning from like Spielberg. And I think you've mentioned a couple, listed a couple of actors before in the past and like how that's translating into the stories you're telling for business for B2B clients.

Morgan J. Ingram: 32:52

Yeah. So. I'll go into Spielberg in a minute. I want to talk about the actors. This one actually has been very fascinating. So, uh, growing up, I was, I was actually took acting classes. Uh, I was the main act in all the plays that I did. Uh, and I love theater. So I'm really big into it. Probably just translates over into like me creating content. It's probably like the main thing, how I see that. So I'm actually in conversation with getting an active coach just so I could get better. At this framing and presenting and the whole entire thing. I'm very serious

Sam Yarborough: 33:21

Love that.

Morgan J. Ingram: 33:22

And so when I, when you think about acting, it's truly getting into character, right? So, you know, the ones that you know, very well, like a Leonardo DiCaprio, a Denzel Washington. I just saw actually Nicholas Cage's new movie, which was, which was very interesting. Um, but they get really deep into their characters and it almost feels right that they aren't the person that you would meet. Which is very hard to do when you're creating content. You don't want to be too much of a character, but you want to be so immersed in what you're saying. Like people gravitate towards that and say, Whoa, like that information was so good and how they brought me in with this story. Right. And so that's the reason why I'm doing those acting pieces. So what I've learned from just. Actors is how do you get more immersed in your work so you can be more in it instead of always overthinking, what do I need to say? It's like, I'm here. I'm in it. This is who I am. This is what I do, right? This is how I show up. That's what I want to be able to do from an acting perspective. And I learned from Leonardo DiCaprio is probably my number one. He's my favorite actor. I learned a lot from him. I did Zell Washington, Idris Elba. I actually watched the way that they go and do scenes and how they get very immersed into it and how I could get better at what I do. When I'm telling a story or for example, I'm presenting on video so you can learn a lot from actors on how they carry the character and carry the script, whatever that may be. So, so that's that in terms of, let's just say Spielberg. Cause, uh, he's interesting. He, so this is, this is something most people, you may or may not know. So all of his, I was watching an interview. I was like, are you kidding me? He said all of his movies that are successful. He literally just said, I found a book and I just made it better with the movie. And so I was like, wait, what? Are you kidding me? Like this is the G and then you go look at his movies. They all were some type of book before I'm like, ready? Player one, drastic part jaws

Jason Yarborough: 35:17

It's true.

Morgan J. Ingram: 35:18

they're all books.

Jason Yarborough: 35:20

Yeah.

Morgan J. Ingram: 35:20

And he was like, I'm just bringing this to life. So. I literally, my mind was blown because when I think about what I do, I actually don't go in and sell people on something new. I sell them on how to do something that they already are doing in a new way.

Sam Yarborough: 35:36

better.

Morgan J. Ingram: 35:37

So that's why, and better. Right. And so that's why we have like our framework called the three A's. It's like, that's where it came from. I was talking to a friend about it. He was like, dude, three A's. And like, we chopped it up, like amplify, acquire, and advocate. Like everything we do, we literally, someone's already doing it. Like there's not like an old brand new, like. Someone's already doing a good webinar, maybe, right. Or, uh, they're already doing stuff at the event. They're already doing good content, but we're like, how do we amplify what you're doing? That's easy. Then it's like, because you made it better, you're going to acquire new people. ET was already a successful book. But Spielberg was like, I'm just going to make it a better movie. So it acquired a new fan base. Right. And then advocate because it was so good, people talked about it. Jurassic Park, ET, Ready Player One. These were books you probably didn't know about, but because he made it in a movie and he told the story better in a visual sense, it got people to gravitate more. So when I, when I was thinking about the business I was building and I was watching this interview and my mind was literally blown. I was like, are you kidding me? I was like. Yeah, just, we come in and just make things better. You're going to find people who are going to come in and then because it was good, they're going to advocate for you. Um, and that's a really big piece. And another thing he talks about a lot was like focusing on, on the heart and the core of what your intuition is telling you and leaning more towards that. A lot of people will try to find. Oh, where's this framework or technique from this person instead of looking at something and be like, this is how I feel it should look building off of that and then making tweets on the way and asking for advice and guidance, but starting with the intuition and gut of what you have and then build from there to then tell that story. So, I mean, I learned a lot from him so far, but those are 2 that really stood out to me is. Really focusing on that and really understanding at the end of the day that like a lot of things that are internally that you're thinking about or you want to do it is there. And then I also say bringing the right talent around you. Cause he was like every movie I had, I brought the right actor talent around me. I had the right producers around me. It wasn't just about me. And I think a lot of people get caught up in that. You're very talented and you're like, I can do everything. And that's actually not the way you should think about it.

Sam Yarborough: 37:37

I think that's so smart because a lot of times like, well, in any business asset, we're like, I'm an SDR, I'm in partnerships, I'm in marketing. I have to like reinvent the wheel to stand out. And that's not true. Like everything is. As you said, with Spielberg, just done better. It's the same thing, it's just through a new lens, or done better.

Morgan J. Ingram: 38:00

Exactly.

Jason Yarborough: 38:01

What's like, what was that, Austin McKeon says, still like an artist?

Morgan J. Ingram: 38:04

Yeah.

Jason Yarborough: 38:05

So you just, you're just taking other concepts from other people and making them better, right? And like, like what you say, like taking your intuition and gut and what you've learned and what you've experienced and what, what resonates with you and bringing that level into a company stories and how they can tell better stories and what you think would resonate with yourself. Right. I love. So as far as like the context of storytelling in Hollywood, are you, are you a student or a fan of Brian Grazer? Are you familiar?

Morgan J. Ingram: 38:30

I'm not familiar.

Jason Yarborough: 38:32

Don't blow your mind with this guy. Um,

Morgan J. Ingram: 38:34

Oh my God. Here we go.

Jason Yarborough: 38:35

I'm going to, I'm going to send you a book. Uh, Curious Minds. He actually just revised. It just came out. Uh, if you're a fan of Rich Roll, he's the most recent interview on Rich Roll, but I've been a fan of, uh, Grazer's for a few years now. And he's basically produced every. Movie imaginable out there, like Apollo 13, all the way out to anything that, you know, in love. And I appreciate his take on storytelling and how he derives to some of these stories. He's like, I derive a lot of my stories from like just having conversations. Talking to people, following my curiosity and chatting with, with other people. He does these things called curiosity conversations, which is kind of how I spun up my coffee chats to, to learn and talk to other people. Like he talks to all these, you know, he's privy to everyone in Hollywood and beyond, but he's having these really big conversations. And he's like, I'll get in deep in these conversations and I'll find out like, Oh man, there's a movie here. Like there's your experience, like there's a movie here. So you're talking to these companies about what they're doing. You're like, Oh man. There's a bigger story here. I was just listening to him talk about, you know, he, he's one that produced eight mile and how he listened to, he, he met with Eminem, had a conversation with him and figured out this, this whole story to build beyond Eminem. And it's not about Eminem's rise to fame. The story was about Eminem overcoming his shame and his past to really pursue like who he's meant to be and what he was supposed to do. And so like you bring that level of, of curiosity into these conversations, these companies, you want, you unleash a whole world for them because they're really not thinking about it. They're thinking about their, their pipeline, their revenue, their, their goals, but you come in and say, man, look what we've got our hands on here. And that's where the world just opens up for them. I think.

Morgan J. Ingram: 40:14

a hundred percent. And it's still the goal is right because it opens up and it's different. It will lead it to more awareness, which will then still lead it to pipeline. Right. It will still, it will still hit the full circle.

Sam Yarborough: 40:27

So,

Jason Yarborough: 40:28

Where do you

Sam Yarborough: 40:29

go ahead. Nope, go.

Jason Yarborough: 40:30

Sam. Where do you think the, the priority in these stories in this brand awareness should fall? Within these, uh, B2B companies and where I'm getting at, I was like, you know, I've worked for a few companies. You and I have shared, have a shared experience at one of these companies where, uh, some of the leaders were like, you know, brand awareness, storytelling, blah, blah, blah. Let's just go generate pipeline and revenue. And we're just like, eh, I mean, yeah, but we've got something incredible here that we need to build on top of. And how do you keep companies focused on building that brand awareness? Brand awareness and storytelling and prioritizing it.

Morgan J. Ingram: 41:08

So it's. It's an obstacle right now because of the market that we're in, as we're filming this right now, a lot of companies are now realize they're not growth at all costs. They actually need to run like a actual company. Right? And then, and then also as well, a lot of marketers are being handed the pipeline number, which they typically didn't own it to the level that they do now. So the way that they have to do content, the way they think about it is different because now it's more revenue based pipeline base, which is fine. That's part of the narrative. What I will say though, is that you can't just do that. Yeah. Because of the market and how quickly people can build tools, most of the like, if we're transparent, most of the tools are like, not that different. There's like nuances, it's like one or two, like, okay, like we have this thing, but like, once they figure out you have that thing, they're just going to go build it. And we're already seeing it in the tech space where like, everyone's either acquiring somebody or they have the same exact thing. So, okay. Now that we have basically the same tool, that's not the case. The buyer is more educated. You're going to have to be the one to be the source of education and the source of thought leadership so that they come to you. And I'm going to bring this company up as an example, as of late, they're not looking too good. I'm not excited because I've stuck in the two. So I'm not that excited about them, but they also are a staple Disney, right? They have not been looking good recently. I'm telling you right now, I'm like, yo, what are y'all doing? But

Jason Yarborough: 42:29

the first year they didn't have a billion dollar production. Is that right?

Morgan J. Ingram: 42:33

Yeah. So I'm like, wait, guys, what's happening. But I mean, I could, there's, there's more nuances to that. We're not, we're not here for that. But the thing is. They have an amusement park and people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to the

Sam Yarborough: 42:45

A lot.

Morgan J. Ingram: 42:46

There are, there are a lot of amusement parks in the world, but you don't really hear about them except for I'm going to Disney World or I'm going to go to Disneyland. And that's because they've done a really good job with doing content and they've done a really good job with thought leadership in media. And that's the reason why people go there, they buy there and their kids want to go. There are, again, there are a thousand music parts. So Nike is another good example. There really isn't a whole lot of difference between a Nike and an Adidas. Like our new balance, they're all like, they're all the same. You know, I played basketball. We've got all the shoes. They're like, not that crazy different to be, to be fair. And the shorts aren't that different to be fair, but they have done a really good job of their branding and the thought leadership McDonald's. I can do the same thing. So with Burger King. So my whole point is. Cool. Cool. Same thing, right? I'm biased and I

Sam Yarborough: 43:35

I was gonna say, you're reppin

Morgan J. Ingram: 43:36

Yeah, I'm really, I'm really, I am really biased because I'm from Atlanta, but this is

Jason Yarborough: 43:40

I grew up in the South, man. It's all Coke.

Morgan J. Ingram: 43:42

you know, that's literally all it is. Like I'm here in Arizona and they have Pepsi and I was like, y'all, I didn't see, I did not see Pepsi until I was like 16 years old. And so I left like, you just don't see it in Atlanta, but in all seriousness, I'm giving you all these examples because. What we fail to do in B2B is actually look at what we do in our normal life. It's like, we, we, we, we get on our computer, we go in our meetings and we forget that life exists. All these brands are things that you have spent money on it. Subconsciously you spend it because of their thought leadership and the media and the content they put out. Otherwise you would not go there and you would not purchase it. Just point blank. So now B2B companies, unfortunately have to think the same way they don't want to, because they may not have the people to do it or they don't like, Oh, here's another thing I got to do, but it's just the case. Now the tool, the text, the text stack is too close. It's too similar. You have to tell a good story and you have to have good content, which is why. I'm building what I'm building. Cause I know this is the future. And I only liked, I only like to do things where I, where things are going. I don't like to do things of something that already exists.

Jason Yarborough: 44:42

right. I think too, like people want to be, want to be brought into an experience with the brands they love, like Nike, you feel like you brought into that experience. Like you may be a. Terrible athlete, but you feel like a better athlete because the story they tell you right. And I'm, I'm very guilty of that. I was like, you, you give me a good story and experience. Like Huckberry is one of my favorite brands on the, or companies on the planet. They're not even a brand. They, they just partner with everybody else, but the stories they tell the newsletters, they put out the blog posts. They write, like, I want to buy every freaking thing they put up. I

Sam Yarborough: 45:14

It's true.

Jason Yarborough: 45:15

as hell, but yeah. Sorry. Uh, but I love it. And they, they, they get me bought in because I'm very much an outdoors guy. I like experience and adventure and like, that's their mantra in the adventures for men. And so like, you know, if you can figure out what your story is as a brand. And create an experience around that and like kind of the Disney experience, right? We're all watching these Disney shows and B2B. We're all watching these webinars or virtual experiences. You go to Disney world, it's an in person event. You go to a conference or a user conference. You've got this in person event, right? You can take models of that and begin to frame it around the experience you create for your customers.

Morgan J. Ingram: 45:51

Exactly.

Sam Yarborough: 45:53

So I wanna

Jason Yarborough: 45:53

I think Six Sense does a really good job at that

Sam Yarborough: 45:55

because it's all, it's all related. have built your own personal brand story. Um, which then in turn is helping you grow a business. Um, that's the basis for what we're talking about for, for brands here. So you're doing it on your own. Um, I'm curious how you personally, like your goals and trajectory have changed since you've committed to like posting on LinkedIn, building that personal brand. Like from day one, I'm going to make an assumption. That your goals were a little bit different than they are now. And how has building a network, building that presence changed that?

Morgan J. Ingram: 46:33

This is a good question. So it's more so, it's more so from like a, like my own personal posting and brand. How's my own Morgan goals changed? Um, yeah, like when I first started creating content, it was, well, One of the goals was I never wanted to like do a resume ever again

Sam Yarborough: 46:51

Great

Jason Yarborough: 46:52

same

Morgan J. Ingram: 46:54

So it really was out of probably late. I don't laziness or just like, I just didn't want to do them. I hate them. And I was like, I don't want to do a resume

Sam Yarborough: 47:01

rather post on LinkedIn every day than write another

Morgan J. Ingram: 47:04

Yeah. That's literally was one of my goals that I wrote down. I could show you my notebook. I was like, I don't want to write this anymore. And so like, we were like, that's crazy. But like, I have not. I have not had to pull out a resume ever since my first job, I don't even know what that even means. And I don't have to like, I don't have to for the rest of my career because of what I have done and what I've built. And there was a reason for that. Um, two is I always wanted to be able to be quick and agile to get opportunities because of my

Sam Yarborough: 47:33

Mm hmm.

Morgan J. Ingram: 47:34

Which kind of leads to the resume part. I didn't want to have to like go through interview process, et cetera. I've never interviewed for any job that I've ever had since I got the Astero job. People just were like, Oh, here's an opportunity. Here's this thing. You should try this out. I don't, I can't, I was just lazy. I don't want to do an interview. All right. Either you want me

Jason Yarborough: 47:51

lazy or smart

Morgan J. Ingram: 47:54

both, but like a little put it that way. Um, but also as well, a goal was just to like get speaking engagements. Uh, Out of college, I went into public speaking. I did like, I actually did open mic nights to do like motivational talks. And so I knew if I created more content, I could get more speaking engagements and I could get more visibility, um, and be an advisor and things of that nature. So that was really the main thing. And also it was just to impact the community. I wanted to share like what I was going through. And I wanted to find other people who are like me as well. So it was also a reason of just like gaining network and friends by creating content. Cause then I could find other people in different places that understood what I was going through. Right. Those are like, and then also just like to create content so I could get opportunities through the company I was at. That was also a big piece of it as well. Um, that was basically it, like that was the focus. And so now it is definitely different. Um, I'd say like, number one, it's too. Inspire the younger version of me for sure. Like if the younger version of me was some of my content, would they be inspired by it? That's something I think about very often for sure. I also use it to, I use it to demonstrate like how you could do things and like, not, uh, let's say to put it, not any like. Sleazy or gimmicky way. So this might rub a little feathers here, but like, I'm going to just be real with it. I don't like 90 percent of people that build in public. It like just irks me. I just don't like the way that they do it. Cause like, because we were like, Oh, I'm a month in, I have a million in pipeline. I'm like. Great. But like, what was like the struggles behind what you actually did to get there? Like, let's give people the real story and being a, being, starting your own thing, creating content. This is like, not easy. So anytime anyone says it's simple or easy, it's just trying to sell you something. I'm just gonna be super real with you. This is very difficult. Like This is not like a walk in the park. And so, uh, the content I create now is I just want to like, let people like, know what the reality is of what you're getting yourself into. Like, I have a huge cautionary tale and like, Hey, look, before you do this, this is what it's going to be like, is it great on the other side? Sure. But it's gonna be hard. Right. And so that's what I want to, that's what I want to do. And like, also it's like to help me build my business, but another big piece of it as well as like creating content to go to the next. Level. Um, I'm in a transition period, which is the hardest period you'll ever have in your life where you are leaving a group of people that you used to associate with and you want to go to the next group of people. The people that I want to hang out with is completely different than what it was a year and a half ago, but I'm not there in that group. Do they, some people know who I am. I'm starting to get, okay, cool, but I'm not in the group. I'm not getting invites yet. Right.

Jason Yarborough: 50:37

Not yet.

Morgan J. Ingram: 50:38

Yes. Right. And what the other groups, it's like, I don't, I just don't, y'all just don't have the same mindset that I do. And it's not, I don't like you personally. It's just like, I know what I have to do to get to the next level. It's not with this group.

Jason Yarborough: 50:50

You have to begin separating and moving towards.

Morgan J. Ingram: 50:52

Yeah. And so I'm creating content to show them like, this is what I'm about to. So that's a big piece as

Sam Yarborough: 50:57

I love that too. And I think one thing you just said that stood out to me is like, pick your hard. Like it's all hard. Waking up and going to a job you don't like is hard. Waking up and going to a job you love is also hard, but you get to choose the lens at which you approach things. And yeah, you're never going to like turn over a page and be like, easy walk in the park. I'm ready to go now. Like, so that's a reality

Jason Yarborough: 51:22

path if it is.

Morgan J. Ingram: 51:24

Yes.

Jason Yarborough: 51:25

Yeah, so yeah, to tie into that, you mentioned like, I'm both a creator. And now an entrepreneur, like it's, it's not easy, it's hard. So like, I'm very curious about your LinkedIn, you know, positioning, like how do you manage the content and everything you're putting out on a daily basis? Do you have like some sort of calendar? Do you have like theme days? And cause you're pretty, I have this question for most people that are consistently posting every day. Like, how do you manage that? What does that look like behind the scenes?

Morgan J. Ingram: 51:52

Um, at this point, creating content is a muscle memory. Like I could wake up, create a post. I'm doing this for so long. I could create thousands of posts. I could do it and I'd be fine. I always have content at this point. Cause I've just been doing it for so long, but I'll tell you. The past year and a half has actually been the most difficult to create content because I was. I've been looking to identify what am I actually doing? Right. And I don't want to talk about things I've already talked about. Like I can go and talk about sales and sales development and training and speak. I can do that next year and the next year and the next year. But I've been in this, my word of the year is evolution. And so I've been in this evolution of like, What content speaks to me that I actually want to do, how does it speak towards and how do I disassociate myself? So it's been a lot of like evolutionary period for me where sometimes I don't really know how I'm posting and how I want to do it because I'm trying to test and do different things. We now have come to the conclusion. I'm actually have an offset with my team and we're going to come to the more of a more. Concrete collusion, collusion of like how I'm going to do it moving forward. So I actually feel way more confident when I'm posting and how I'm doing it. I've gotten some guidance and help and things of that nature. But the past year and a half has been hard because again, I'm in a transition period of not the same content I normally do. which is hard for most creators when you are known for something and you want to be known for something different because you want to go back to what you're known for, because that's where you get the most engagement where people like you, when you start talking about something different, people are like, I don't really know, like, I don't know what that is. And every person has, has experienced that. Uh, Gary Vee has, Um, a lot of other people have gone Lewis house. They've gone through this period where they're transitioning and they want to talk about something new, but the audience doesn't really get it yet. And you have to create that bridge. And that's what I've been doing. But in terms of how I create my con yeah, how I create my content is I block off one day and I just do it. So I'll have like two hours of creating videos. I'll write out all my thoughts and then I'll just flush it down. And then I have content for the month and I go from there. That's how I do it. I don't like waking up and being like, what should I post today? Like, that's just not how I work. I'm a very in depth person. So I need time to like really think about it and go about it So I just block out a day for the month I deal with my content then and then as I have conversations throughout the month I may, I may pop off and say something, but most of it is already pre programmed from my perspective.

Jason Yarborough: 54:07

Got it. Are you a scheduler? Or you just show up in the morning and hit post based off what you've already written? Yeah,

Morgan J. Ingram: 54:16

at this point. Um, if I feel inspiration, I will do that. There's just too many things that are happening in the business for me to think about what I'm going to post this morning that already needs to already be done. I have other things I need to worry about.

Jason Yarborough: 54:29

Yeah. I hear you, man. This is awesome, man. This has been so good. Uh, show up, do the work, put the time in, man. This has been fantastic. We'll bring this in for a landing. So we'd love to, to kind of go a little bit off script and ask a fun little question. Being that you're a storyteller, student of story producers, actors. Is there a favorite story book movie that you go back to time and time again?

Morgan J. Ingram: 54:56

My favorite movie of all time is Avatar.

Sam Yarborough: 54:58

Oh,

Morgan J. Ingram: 55:00

Yeah.

Sam Yarborough: 55:01

I haven't seen the second. Is it worth it?

Morgan J. Ingram: 55:04

Oh, it's, it's amazing. It's just the, the, the visuals are like, are just so good stories. Story is very quality, but the visuals alone, you're like,

Sam Yarborough: 55:13

when it came out it was next level.

Morgan J. Ingram: 55:17

it's so good. Yeah. We were talking about

Jason Yarborough: 55:19

lot of story weaved in and out of there.

Morgan J. Ingram: 55:21

yeah, it's like the first, like three 40 movie. Right. Um, so I wrote a paper on avatar and. College and it's based off the story of Pocahontas. I don't think people even know this, but it's based off the story of Pocahontas. And so like that story in itself is one of the best stories. It is a just going back to the Disney movie, right? They've done that before. And so to see how they correlate so many different pieces and tell that story and you get really immersed and you're like, wait, how did he go from not walking? Now he's with the avatars. Now he's elite leading and like, it's crazy. Right. So for me, that's probably one of the best stories told and then visually. They just do such a phenomenal job.

Sam Yarborough: 55:59

I love that answer Actually, I love all your answers. There were so many times. I'm like left turn did not expect that. So

Jason Yarborough: 56:07

Yeah,

Morgan J. Ingram: 56:08

provide, I provide the unexpected.

Jason Yarborough: 56:12

I love it. That's what we're after here on the podcast. We need more unexpected left turns. And I think it's safe to say that that we the collective unit of the Arby's here are kindred spirits with Morgan J. Ingram. I think everything you said resonates very close with us. And we'd love to expand a lot of that stuff, you know, outside of this podcast. But for now, We'll bring it to a close where, uh, where can everyone find you if they haven't found you already?

Morgan J. Ingram: 56:36

Yeah, so I guess don't Google Morgan Ingram,

Sam Yarborough: 56:39

Or do now

Jason Yarborough: 56:40

J.

Morgan J. Ingram: 56:41

Oh, yeah, I do. Now you can't, now you can't, now it came out and all seriousness. So, uh, mortgage Ingram across all platforms, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram. So follow me there if you want to check it out. And then, yeah, if you want to see what we're doing and what we're building, it's called AMP. Uh, you can check that out too. AMP.

Sam Yarborough: 56:55

this has been the best seriously. Thank

Morgan J. Ingram: 56:59

No, no, she's lying guys. Don't listen to this. This is what they always podcast. I'm just kidding. Thank

Sam Yarborough: 57:04

They do but

Jason Yarborough: 57:05

He's been listening.

Sam Yarborough: 57:06

transparency like

Jason Yarborough: 57:07

just keep getting better.

Sam Yarborough: 57:09

for sure. Thank you for your time. I know you're a busy man, so we appreciate you sharing with us. Um, enjoy Arizona and friends. We'll see you next time.

Jason Yarborough: 57:20

See you.

Sam Yarborough: 57:25

Truly. Thank you. It was excellent.

Morgan J. Ingram: 57:28

Thank you all.