How to Build Trust on Your Website in Seconds | Jamie Mason Cohen

People decide faster than you think.

Before they book a call, enquire, or buy, they ask one silent question:

Can I trust this business?

In this episode of The Website Growth Show, Rana Shahbaz speaks with communication expert Jamie Mason Cohen about how businesses can build trust on their website within seconds.

Jamie explains why trust often matters more than logic, why people judge quickly, and how your website becomes your first conversation with a potential customer.

If your website looks fine but is not converting visitors into leads, trust may be the missing piece.

We also discuss how positioning, clarity, social proof, and simple messaging help visitors feel confident enough to take the next step.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to build trust on your website in seconds
 • Why trust matters more than logic in buying decisions
 • Why visitors judge your website quickly
 • How clear messaging increases conversions
 • Why social proof helps build confidence
 • How to position your business clearly online
 • Why less information can create more trust
 • How your homepage influences first impressions
 • Why trust comes before competence 

Key topics:
The importance of clear communication in business
Body language and energy as trust builders
Positioning and storytelling for differentiation
Website as a business growth tool
Adapting communication in the AI age

sound  bites:
"Connection before competence."
"Ground yourself in your truth and claim your space."
"Jump right in and tell people what this is about today."


Key takeaway:
Your website is not just a brochure.

It is a trust building tool.

If visitors do not trust you quickly, they leave quickly.

Subscribe to The Website Growth Show for weekly insights on:

Website growth strategy
Website conversion optimisation
SEO and content strategy

How to turn your website into your number one business growth tool

Transcript

Introduction to Clear Communication

Jamie Mason Cohen 0:00

In the age of AI, many businesses will be impacted. One skill set that will have more relevance than ever is clear communication. Give your energy as a gift to the person on the other end. Pull it out of yourself. And if you're having trouble figuring out what that looks like, Rana, think about how you speak with someone who's an old friend. Think of someone in your family where you don't have to even think about how to act. You just feel a connection. So he's talking the whole time like this and kind of leaning in and uncomfortable and moving like this. I said, You're a strong man. I want you, if you look at my body language, we're talking about body language, I want you to ground yourself almost like a strong man or woman, right? Like ground yourself in the ground, no shifting, right?

Rana Shahbaz 0:39

What is the importance of a website in your business, in your current success? How much the website contributed towards it?

Jamie Mason Cohen 0:45

It provides a foundation and it gives the other person who's considering you the confidence that you're a professional, that you communicate before you even say a word or have a call with them.

Rana Shahbaz 0:57

What is your favorite or number one growth hack you picked up with all these experiences, the businesses where everybody's looking to grow? So is there one pattern or commonality or your your favorite takeaway which worked with most businesses? Welcome to the website growth show brought to you by WP Minds. I'm your host, Rana Shadas. On this show, we speak with business owners, agency leaders, and marketers to learn what's working to improve their websites and grow their businesses. Most of us think people buy based on logic, but what they are really buying is trust. Today's guest knows how to build trust fast. Jamie Mason Cohen has helped executives, healthcare leaders, and entrepreneurs sharpen their communication in high-stakes moments. He's a TEDx speaker, former Saturday Night Live team member, and a master of decoding human behavior. But what does that have to do with websites? Everything. Because if your website isn't clear, it isn't converting. In this episode, Jamie shares how to earn trust in under 10 seconds. Why Clarity Beats Chrisma, especially online. Let's jump right in. Jamie, welcome to the website growth show. I'm excited to learn how to clear communicate clearly. Well, I'm happy to be here, Rana. Amazing. Can we start to why it is important for businesses to communicate clearly to grow?

Identifying Communication Gaps

Jamie Mason Cohen 2:13

In the age of AI, many businesses will be impacted. One skill set that will have more relevance than ever is clear communication. So for example, I work in healthcare. I'm not a doctor, but what I do is I train physicians, clinicians, brand ambassadors, KOLs to tell their stories within healthcare with authenticity and confidence. Now, why is that important? Because if they have a new medicine, a new drug that's going on to the market, there's a lot at stake. Clear communication cannot be outsourced to ChatGPT. As much as I like ChatGPT, there has to be a human component in order to ensure that other humans feel confident that they're getting the right drug or the right medication that serves them. Clear communication is the one skill set, along with a few others, which we might get into, that will have continuity regardless of the shifts that we're seeing moving forward.

Rana Shahbaz 3:11

Fascinating. And how businesses or these healthcare professionals find out that they are not communicating clearly, what are the signs?

Jamie Mason Cohen 3:19

In that particular field, the individuals who I work with are some of the top in the world in communicating technical data within their own circles. But if you're in an echo chamber with other scientists or other physicians or clinicians, you often don't realize that the technical terminology and the way you're describing things doesn't register or doesn't land to everyday people. And so it's really about knowing your audience. It's not that they're not effective communicators. I just did an event in Toronto with some of the leading Alzheimer's doctors in Canada. And they were excellent communicators when they spoke internally. All I did was I listened to the way that they were describing it, could be a pitch in terms of a new medication. It could be speaking at a medical conference. And I was just adding a few elements that made the connection with everyday people a little bit more palpable. And we can get into that. What are some of those tips that you and I can develop? I'm even modeling here to the best of my ability so that you can instantly become a better communicator if you practice them.

Rana Shahbaz 4:33

That will be really interesting to, you know, figure it out how to do that. And once you identify that there are opportunities to improve communication and grow, how do you implement those uh opportunities?

Jamie Mason Cohen 4:45

You practice. Every time you have an opportunity, professionally or personally, you can try these out if you're at a family dinner and you're like, oh, I'm seeing the same people, you know, in-laws or people that you speak with. You don't tell anybody you're doing this. It's still authentic, but you practice. So for example, these are two things that most people, not everybody, but most people might overlook unless they just do it naturally, which some people do. Use some emotion when you speak. Most people they go to their day-to-day and they sound like this on Zoom calls. Or, hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. I'm okay. Most people are about a six out of 10. You can instantly become one of the top communicators in your circles by showing a little bit of emotion. Is this too much for you? I don't think so. Even if we're from different cultures, even if we're in different countries, I have found that when you instantly elevate your energy in any circumstance and you're the most energetic person on the call, not too much, it's impossible to do this all the time, nor appropriate. People lean in and listen. And so I saw that I've seen this with journalists, I've seen this when I worked in comedy behind the scenes for a TV show in New York. And I've seen this even in healthcare. If you're a doctor, if you're an entrepreneur, regardless of what you do, give your energy as a gift to the person on the other end. Pull it out of yourself. And if you're having trouble figuring out what that looks like, Rana, think about how you speak with someone who's an old friend. Think of someone in your family where you don't have to even think about how to act. You just feel a connection. So one way I put it is this you and I don't know each other very well. Over the years, I know your company, you know a little bit about me, but not too much. I've trained myself to authentically treat you right now. I'm looking into the camera because it's a virtual call, like an old friend. I'm free to be myself. I'm not censoring how Renna is perceiving me right now. I am fully me, but not always like this, but this is a part of me. So, number one, show emotion. And the other thing is don't be afraid sometimes, like I'm doing now, to smile as I'm speaking, even if it's a serious topic. It doesn't mean that I'm downgrading the seriousness of it. It shows to someone subconsciously that I'm warm, I'm an ally, and that I'm trying to connect with you, like I just did there. Those two things are starting point.

Case Studies in Healthcare Communication

Rana Shahbaz 7:14

Amazing. I'm learning so much to improve my you know podcasting skills. So this is new for me, and I'm learning on each call. This is a you know uh a massive lesson which I will try to implement, maybe starting from now. Uh I think with your healthcare examples, I can you know recall of you know taking kids to a doctor and the dentist. The doctor is the normal, you know, normal doctor. It's hard for kids to take to them. But the dentist who interacts with kids, you know, make ask them a few questions and they like it, it's not as difficult to go to the dentist. So I can uh certainly relate to uh that example. Amazing. How how these is there any other example you recently worked with someone where you you know identify the gaps, opportunities, and you implement these things and the results change. Is there any any recent uh uh case study you can share?

Jamie Mason Cohen 8:07

Yeah, well, we'll stick with the healthcare example. I had these healthcare professionals prepare a very short presentation, about three minutes, where they had medical data. And by the way, it doesn't matter if you're not in healthcare. You take, if you're pitching, if you have a sales call coming up, if you are like you, like you said, if you're a dentist, if you have a keynote presentation like me that you're presenting, if you're in branding, I had them present these three-minute presentations. And here's what I noticed. One of the presenters was competent. He's a top doctor, you took him seriously, he knows his information, and yet he wasn't connecting with the other people in the room as much as he could be. It's not his fault. It's one little you can change these things. So what I said to him is, where are your hands? And he said, What do you mean? So I can actually show you, I can move back a bit because I have a microphone. His hands were in his pockets like this. You see, like this? So he's talking the whole time, like this, and kind of leaning in and uncomfortable and moving like this. I said, You're a strong man. I want you, if you look at my body language, we're talking about body language, I want you to ground yourself almost like a strong man or woman, right? Like ground yourself in the ground, no shifting, right? Right here, your hands are here in the middle zone. Have your hands open in the middle zone, and when you're speaking, align your gestures. So, Rana, the number one thing I want to get across is this. It doesn't really matter. You're just in here, not too far over here. That's too much. Right in here is compass. And the second one is eye contact. Now, we're in a virtual space, so I have a little flexibility with my microphone here because it's allowing me to do this. Eye contact is essential. You don't want to stare at one person the whole time unless it's virtual. When I look at the camera, I'm looking at everybody. If you're in a room of people and you're communicating with more than one person, you want random coverage. You don't want to focus on one person like this the whole time, because what about the people over there? And you don't want to imagine everybody, people have said, imagine everybody is naked or look over people. This is bad advice. This is not good advice. You want to do, you want to look at one person over here, make a point, and then you want to look at one person over here. You want to touch each person with your eyes one point, one time with a smile. So if your body language is clear, it's concise and not too much grounded, not shifting because that looks nervous, and you're making random eye coverage with as many people in the room. I gave a talk in Austin, Texas for about 150 people. Before I started, I walked to the center of the room, I didn't say a word, I grounded myself slowly, and I looked at as many people in that 150 people or so in the room as possible, and then I spoke after about eight seconds. And what I did was I, in some ways, cast a spell. An actor, Tom Hardy, talks about actors casting a spell. It's not manipulative, it's not something where it's like a sorcerer. If you're calm, composed, and not moving too much and centered in your own body. I I meditated before I came here. Meditation can help, mindfulness. People will lean in. It will boost your charisma, your competence, and most importantly, Irana, it's connection before competence. And connection before competence means I can trust you because I feel a connection to you first. Because human beings are emotional creatures. We think we're making rational decisions all the time, but we want to know can I connect with this person before I really lean into their message? So, number one is body language. That's something we can do. Clear, firm, composed, still, and eye contact. Make contact with as many people as you can over a session and don't focus on one and don't look over their heads or some weird visualization. Make sure that each person feels a connection as much as possible when you're speaking with them. If you do the things we've already discussed and you listen to nothing else on this podcast, you will already be in the top five 1 to 5% of communicators.

The Role of Websites in Business Growth

Rana Shahbaz 12:05

This is a brilliant advice, Jamie. Thank you very much. It's a you know solid communication advice, which I think definitely helped me and maybe many people who are looking to improve the communication. So we understood the importance of clear communication, body language, and everything. On this podcast, our main focus is how to convert your website as your number one business growth tool. And through website, you communicate with your ideal customers. So, how these principles, which you just discussed, can we use on website?

Jamie Mason Cohen 12:38

I'm working on this right now. Before we got on our official podcast, one thing that I shared with you is I am working on clearly communicating a path forward. Even though I've had some success up to this point that I'm happy with, it's important to, for me, and I know for any entrepreneur here, because I'm studying this, I'm living it. If you test me and say why you in terms of why is this important, I can tell you why, is I believe, based on my own experience, that 50% of success in terms of what I'm doing, keynotes, trainings, podcasts, podcast school, a new course I'm creating, I created is positioning. So clear communication in when it comes to a website or a speaker's reel, which is what I'm working on simultaneously, and I'll have both done by the end of January, is about positioning. And if you, if your company, or from my position, I don't do what you do, but from my position, if I can clearly communicate a path forward, I can change that and continually evolve that. But the number one takeaway is what is your positioning? And is your positioning in alignment with the people that you want to serve and build relationships with moving forward? For me, those are meeting planners, associations, top business and leadership forums around the world, and healthcare providers in order to help them clearly communicate with authenticity and confidence.

Rana Shahbaz 13:59

Fantastic. With this clear communication, what is the importance of a website in your business, in your current success? How much the website contributed towards it?

Jamie Mason Cohen 14:09

It provides a foundation and it gives the other person who's considering you the confidence that you're a professional, that you communicate before you even say a word or have a call with them. It gives social proof. Aristotle said in the his treaty on storytelling that the first thing people want to know about you when in storytelling is how can I trust you? Is there social proof? So I think a website is the ultimate uh business card. Obviously, it's much more than that in 2026 and beyond. We don't really give out uh cards anymore. Maybe some people will have business cards, but it is the business card of the century moving forward. It's the first place people look, if they do Google or Chat GPT or they ask for a referral, what will be on that website? It will be the problem you solve or problems you solve, your testimonials possibly. In my case, I have speaker reels, which are short three-minute pieces right on the first page of the home page that gets across who I serve and gives a little bit of what they can expect in terms of the tone and the message from me. And also just images. The images say a thousand words. Your website, one way I would rephrase a famous quote that I like, which is your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. Your website speaks so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. So I think everything stems from the first impression that you make when there's a lot of competition. How are you positioning yourself on that website? Number one with messages, with images and video, that almost propels people to want to know more.

Clarifying Your Positioning

Rana Shahbaz 15:50

Got it, got it. And the positioning uh you mentioned quite a bit. So can you elaborate a bit more how people can clarify their positioning while communicating, whether it's in person, through talks, or through their website? Do you have any more to share on that?

Jamie Mason Cohen 16:05

Well, positioning to me would be how you're framing the topic that you're speaking on. So, for example, thousands of people write books and talk about leadership. There's nothing about leadership that is, you're not differentiating yourself by just saying I'm a leadership speaker, which is what I did at the beginning. I was like, well, how do I differentiate myself? How do I position myself? So up to this point, I positioned myself based on what makes me different. So what made me different were two things. One was I worked for a a popular comedy TV show in the United States called Saturday Night Live. So I worked behind the scenes of the show. But what I realized was that positioning served me well up to this point. And I still will do that talk. But moving forward, I don't know if the next generation has as much of an emotional connection to that show. And they don't know some of my examples because I worked there 20 something years ago, right? So I still will use those as examples, but I might not lead with that like I used to. And the other thing I used to do, I do, is I'm one of the leading handwriting experts in the country. And I've done a TEDx talk on that. People absolutely love when I do it, but it's very hard to explain in an AI world this archaic form of understanding someone through their handwriting. So I'm being vulnerable here. So I still will do that. People still request it all the time. But moving forward, I had to make a tough decision with positioning and say, okay, those are things that made me different and helped me get to this point. Moving forward, what are the subjects or what can I, what am I an expert on where I can position myself within this huge leadership broad bubble that still is different because I'm different, you're different because a lot of people will help others develop websites, but it's it's what you bring to the table that is unique to you. So I think each person is unique by virtue of who they are and their whole history and cumulatively what they brought to the table. In case of what I'm bringing to the table moving forward, is I will continue to do communication training and helping people develop clarity under pressure to communicate when the stakes are high. So that could be positioning. Now, if you say, well, why if you pushed and said, Why, why you? Well, I explained some of it. I mean, I worked at Saturday Night Live, so the show's not ready because it's finished. The show's ready because it's 11:30 on Saturday night. So I work with some of the leading comedians and performers in the world helping them prepare under pressure. And so, well, that's it. So that's positioning. That helps my overall positioning. But I also asked myself, moving forward, in the age of AI, what are those skill sets that I can take a lead on? I'm not the only one in the world, but I have, you know, 20 or 30 years of experience in different fields that I can really position myself differently than most people. And so that was about mentorship. So it's the ability of helping organizations preserve judgment, trust, and leadership continuity when technology alone isn't enough. And so there are a million AI speakers now, just like leadership speakers. Everybody's jumping on this bandwagon. Oh, I can talk about AI because I use ChatGPT and I know some prompt engineering. I don't think that's enough to say you're an AI speaker. You could say that, but I looked and I said, Rana, what are my assets or what is my experience that if you said, why, why are you going to talk about the subject of mentorship? Well, I started to think back to the stories of my life. When I was a mentor, I won international awards for education for uh TED Education and Huffington Post. I did it, I won this international teaching competition in innovation in mentorship. Okay, there, there we go. I have proof of that. If you Google Jamie Cohen's uh TED TED Education, okay, so that's something tangible. I'm a father, which I don't often talk about, but I understand mentorship from a personal level. That gives me credibility organically. I've also been a mentor in I was a you know a TV director, right? So I mentored many people over the course of years in a previous career. So I have these different touch points where I can touch upon what does it really mean to be a mentor? I'm writing a book this year with a very well-known author on this topic. In my in my podcast, The Leadership Standard, which is a top 10 podcast in business in Canada, I'm interviewing people who are well known throughout the world in business leadership, like Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Michelle Romano is on Dragon's Dance, like Shark Tank in Canada, Leyland Vitter, who's a top journalist in the United States. I'm interviewing top people, and one of the focal points of that podcast is you guessed it, mentorship. So when you position yourself, you could say, I'm gonna position myself on any topic. Do you have a story that's credible, that's interesting, that's there's some emotional connection within your area of positioning? And if the answer is yeah, then that might be an area you might want to be considered an expert in moving forward. And the other question with positioning is is there a need for it? Is there an audience for it? That's very important. Having a story without credibility without relevance might not be the best positioning for you. It might be what is the story matching the relevance moving forward? And the reason I chose this is because I see this as something that will gain even more value, human mentorship, not less, in the age of AI, and I have a story in it. So, like the Venn diagram that some of us learned in school with the circles, it intersects with an interesting story or multiple stories and experiences that are credible and interesting and emotionally connected with relevance. And that's why I'm positioning my website. Even now, I'm I'm in the process of developing this. I'd probably love to hear your thoughts on that professionally. And I'm also developing my speakers reel. Even though I love my speakers reel and people tell me my other speaker reels are really powerful. They're still there, but by not if people ask me for them, I'll pull them out. But right now, my positioning is all about mental. Culture within an AI-driven world. And the second one of positioning, you can have more than one position, is communication training, telling authentic compliance stories for healthcare. Very specific niche. And I used to have a lot. So this is my last tip, which is normal for people starting out. And I'm sure you see this. And it's not wrong. It's just not going to maybe help you get as further ahead as you'd like. I used to have on my website seven topics, right? All within leadership, but values and looking at your handwriting and assessments and this. And people don't know who you are in seven to 15 seconds. It's too, it's too confusing. People only have a few seconds to make a judgment. So own one area. And if people ask you, can you do a talk about these other things? You have the option to say yes, which is what I do. I have the option to say yes or I figure it out. But right now, if you look at my website, I want you to go, oh yeah, this guy talks about mentorship in the age of AI. He seems credible. He has some testimonials. He seems friendly and he's professional. He's dressed in a suit and he's on, he's got good stuff, and he knows who the hero is. It's not him, it's the audience. Okay, maybe I'll get on a call with this guy for 10 minutes. That's what I want from the website. It's not meant to sell me entirely. It's to market me to get on a sales call.

Rana Shahbaz 23:20

Well, this is this is amazing and thank you so much. Very, very interesting. I wanted to touch upon your handwriting. You're a handwriting expert. And you with handwriting, you can judge people's personality. Can you judge a business personality with the website communication? Or people can there is a r rally any relevance to that?

Jamie Mason Cohen 23:40

Yeah, and that's a good analogy because with handwriting, I said I help people discover their strengths and blind spots in under 10 seconds. And then I prove it. Right. And so for you as an expert, and I would say you're more aligned to do this than me, because this is your area of expertise. But I would say, can you help people identify their strengths and blind spots if you're if you're looking at it in under 10 seconds on their website? And then another way of looking at it is if, okay, so that would be more for you. Can you help people identify their strengths and blind spots in under 10 seconds? Because that's the time most people get. But I would say, not for you, Rena, but for whoever for the listener right now, for you, meaning the listener, if you have a company and a website, which most people will have some kind of website, can people understand who you are or what you want to get across in under 10 seconds? And it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong, or you think, oh no, no, no, no, no. They're they're not understanding what I mean, then that's on you, not on them. Most of the time.

Rana Shahbaz 24:39

Exactly. In in our process, that's what we do the we do the website audits. And this is our first element in the hero section. It's not 10 seconds, it's just five seconds because people don't have time. So they bounce back, bounce away from your website. So the three three questions, what do you do, how you do it, and how this can improve your prospect's life? If if these questions are not answered on your hero section within five seconds, normally you need you got some work to do.

Jamie Mason Cohen 25:06

What did you say the last one was? What do you do? How do you do it? And what was the third one?

Rana Shahbaz 25:10

How will that improve my life? How will it solve my your prospect's problem or improve their life? Is it whether they're solving a problem or improving customers' life?

Jamie Mason Cohen 25:21

Yeah. So those are so simple and so challenging to make sure you get those right.

Rana Shahbaz 25:27

I I I often normally say what over the years I learned most important things are simple, but not easy to do it. Getting fit, this is my you know, first uh personal development coach when I used to follow. It's everybody on the road, you ask, everybody wants to get fit. Everybody knows how to do it. Eat well, exercise, and do it consistently. But not many people do. Similar is with any important part, a website, very basic things, but you know, you it takes time to understand what you need to implement and then do it consistently, basically.

Jamie Mason Cohen 26:01

Yeah. Well, that's extremely valuable. And I would add, based on our overall framework of clear communication, what you just did was you demonstrated clear communication in the form of questions. And what I find, and something I even I struggle with sometimes, even though I practice this, and I would consider myself a practitioner, is sometimes I talk too much. And one way to restrain yourself to become a top communicator is to pause, to ask questions, to allow the other person to speak without interrupting them. You have an overarching theme that you want to talk about today with me, but you're taking that point, you're listening with that spell, with stillness, you're giving me space to speak, and you're taking something, a nugget from that. You're acknowledging something that you liked or something that resonated. And then with nuance, you're moving on to another topic and bringing in that last point. So those, so the few things there. How do you become a more effective communicator, regardless of your industry, is practicing your listening, ask questions with curiosity, which most people don't do. That's why I'm a big believer in starting your own podcast, because podcasting has been the number one tool that I've used professionally. I've grown by 20% a year because of my podcast. And it's been the number one tool to help me become a more effective communicator and not just teach it, but to live it both professionally with my wife, with my kids, with my friends. And don't talk all the time like I am right now. Balance between the city.

Embracing Change for Growth

Rana Shahbaz 27:31

You have a license to talk today, so you are the guest. So I'm here to I'm here as an active listener, so that's what I'm I'm learning. And I I'll second your benefits of the podcast. This is the main benefit for me as well. So I love talking and learning. Uh people like yourself. So thank you very much for joining me. Can we move on to the next important uh part of our discussion, which we touched upon before we started, that what got you here will not get you there. So you you are you are a successful business owner, but you said you are making big changes in 2026 to go from here to another another level. So would you like to touch upon what are those changes and why are you making those changes?

The Importance of Clear Messaging

Claiming Your Territory in Business

Jamie Mason Cohen 28:13

What the changes are are tangible. My website is completely different, completely changed from what it was. I mean, it's still me, it's still images of me. The testimonials are very similar. I I kept the testimonials, the video testimonials, but the messaging is different. And then the second one is my speaker's reel. So for a keynote speaker trainer, I created two new reels that are specific. One overall, this idea, this mentorship keynote that we were talking about. And the second one was also positioning myself. I'm doing more moderation, moderation, live interviews with people on stage. So I created a specific reel for that. A reel is just that. It's like a trailer, a movie trailer, a two-minute movie trailer. That's the what. The what is, my positioning and my framing are a little bit different. And when I said what got you here won't get you there, it doesn't mean that you throw out everything that got you there. It just means that the most successful people that I know don't give up when, or not give up. They don't just stop at one thing and they're fixed. Some people I know do that and they're happy with doing the same thing for 30 years. I don't understand that. That's not really my ethos, and that's not my value system. My value system is appreciating where I am to the best of my ability. That's important to celebrate. And it's I want to grow. I want to grow on every level. I want to grow, I want to be be a better presenter. I want my messaging to be clear and to resonate because the world changes. So if the world changes, my values can stay similar, which they have, and yet my messaging needs to adapt to the world. I can't expect the world to completely adapt to me. And so the two tangible things are the website, actually that as a starting point, the website, the real, the keynote. So I'm developing a new keynote because I'm claiming my space, which is another word I'm using this year, claiming to claim. Sometimes you have to claim an area of expertise and then build something to reach that. A lot of people have this problem, and I'll use the word problem. I'm helping people develop podcasts. So here's what I hear. Oh, yeah, I'd love to do that, but I'm overwhelmed. Um, I don't know where to start and the technology, and I don't know if why would people really want to listen to me in this area? And I'm saying, you're a top executive coach in Canada. You've already developed relationships with 15 people. Why wouldn't other people like them listen to you? And stop with the technical stuff. It will take you a day. Like I created this whole backdrop. Here's another thing, right? Like, what are what got me here didn't get me there. It's simple things that make a difference. You don't know me, so we haven't spoken before. This backdrop is new. So it's a little thing. You might think, well, it's superficial, it doesn't matter that much. I was in my office upstairs for six years. Everybody said they liked my backdrop. There was nothing wrong with my backdrop. I was facing a nice window looking out on the street, and I had decent lighting and a nice little cam webcam. But I thought, you know what? I want to be a 1% visual. So what I do, new camera, new Mac, invested some money and time about three weeks later. My lighting, which I continually to tweak, is different. And people notice that. And it gives me even more confidence when I'm on podcasts because people go, I like your lighting. I like what are you doing there, right? I'm in I'm in my basement, my finished basement, which I never used for any business reasons, but I upped my game. So I upped my website, my reel, my keynote, my backdrop. These are things in my control. And a lot of things in business are not in our control. We can't we can't force someone to say yes to us or choose us. But what we can do is say, how do I ground in my truth and what I want? What can I experiment with and what can I claim? I claim this territory in mentorship, and I will continue to lead a reach to be the number one speaker in the world on that topic. And it's not being arrogant or cocky to say that. I think that with all the competition, if we don't believe in ourselves, who is gonna believe in us?

Rana Shahbaz 32:09

Exactly. I think this is a very important point. And uh I think when we talk about how to stuff or technical stuff, I think this is one way of that you know procrastination basically is a reason for not doing do it. Getting basically, I'm a big fan of James Clear. Once one way or another, he comes into the podcast discussion. So get one person better in every podcast or every episode. So I think people should start. And as you mentioned, many benefits of the podcast. So I think I I totally agree with that.

Learning from Industry Leaders

Jamie Mason Cohen 32:37

And James Clear, I listened to an interview with him yesterday uh with Shane Parrish. It was one of the best podcast interviews I've ever listened to. I was blown away by James Clear. I like his book. It was hard for me to understand. I have his book back here, how one book could basically make an entire career today, but it has. It's made his entire career. And some of his advice is so simple, so clear, and so practical around some of the things we're talking about. He talked about the importance of positioning. And he also talked about claiming. He didn't use the word claim. He said he wanted to write a book about habits because he chose to start a blog four years earlier, which grew to become 200,000 plus subscribers. And he said he wanted to differentiate himself and position himself and claim space that he didn't really own at that time. And he said, What do all of the other habits books have in common? And he said, They tell you what it is, like what are habits. They don't show you, tell you how to develop these good habits and how to break these bad habits clearly. They tell you the what, they tell you the why, but they don't focus on the how. So what he said is he was going to be the how, the practical habit guy. That's positioning. He didn't just stop at habits. He said, I'm gonna give you the how of habits, which I guess at that time, eight years ago, wasn't clearly defined.

Rana Shahbaz 33:58

I I agree. Uh basically why I'm a big fan of him is because I grew with him about 2013, 2014. I had I was, you know, searching all over the internet when we started business, trying to build my business. And at that time I had an over saturation of information coming in. So I was unsubscribing to everything and just focusing on a few. And I could not unsubscribe to James Clear's newsletter. And every week when let uh every week he used to write two articles on habits, and both articles, whatever you just said, on top of that, his angle was his positioning was the well-researched articles. He was not just pumping in whatever his own opinions, he was researching habits and then sharing what are those habits and how to break or how to make good habits. That was his positioning. And for many years, uh I could not figure it out how he's making money because it was just pure information and he was collecting emails. I'm I'm going into this detail because that's a website related as well. So he built uh pick a position as a coach, articles on habits, collected emails, and when he launched his book, it was an instant success. His books was mainly the compilation of his articles, which he has already written. Uh I had a chance to meet him when he came here in London in his book launched. I had a signed book as well. So that was one of you know souvenirs become because now that book has become one of the top best-selling books of of all time. So uh he's a brilliant example. Fantastic. And uh uh we were discussing your, you know, what got you here, will not get you there. So what are the main uh uh tangible is a website? How do you decide what needs to be changes or how do you think the world is changing? What are the changes will be you are implementing on the website?

Jamie Mason Cohen 35:47

That's a work in progress. Even today, this morning, I thought I had it at a really good place, and then I was second guessing one or two points. So I think part of it is at some point, you just have to claim your territory. And the other word I'm using this year is ship. S-H-I-P. Ship meaning as a verb. Just you gotta get things out there and try them out. And I tried to walk my talk with this. So, for example, I am developing my website if you go to my website now in real time. So I've changed it five times with uh the technical person who is taking my direction over the last week. So I am developing it. I am not saying if you, you know, like coming soon, my new website. No, no, no, no, no. I am practicing I'm putting it out there. Why is that? Well, I'm not afraid. My whole career has been built on I'm experimenting in real time and putting things out there. And I also don't think that people are paying that much attention, even though I'm doing well. I'm not, I don't have that much of an ego that, oh my God, millions of people are looking at this website. So I believe in practicing and putting things out there. One of the interviews I did on the podcast with was with Michelle Romano, who exited four successful multi-million dollar businesses by the time she was 35. And she is a star in the business community in Canada. You know Sharp Tank, the show Sharp Tank? In Canada, it's called Dragon's Den. So she's one of the dragons on Dragon's Den for many, many years. And everybody here in the business world knows who she is. Is she wrote an excellent audible book when I which I read when I was preparing for my interview called The 70% Factor. And she said she was a recovering perfectionist and that she was overthinking all the decisions in her businesses. And it wasn't until she decided that if it's 70% good enough, that's good enough. Get it out there and then edit or revise. And so what I'm thinking with my website, not thinking doing, I have my website up there. There's a few things I'm like, I don't know if that should be the first image. Is that the right hero image? Is it it's a listening picture, not a keynote? Should I go back to a keynote? At some point, I'm not gonna drive the technical person mad with changes all the time, so they'll never talk to me again. I'm gonna say, you know what? I'm gonna claim my space here. I'm gonna ship this out and see the response. Maybe there's a response, maybe there's not so much, maybe people don't have an opinion either way. But I'm going to put it out there for three months or a quarter, four months, and then I'm gonna maybe change, and maybe I'll change the image, maybe I'll change the language. But if I'm constantly uh double guess second guessing myself or taking opinions from everybody, then I'll lose my identity. I'll lose my groundedness. The second thing I'll say on that is the question you had was how do you know? In my case, I give between 60 and 70 keynotes, trainings, and workshops a year. So what I've been doing is I don't just go in and give the training. I always take notes. I take journals. I have this journal here where I write down everything. I'll write down even some of your notes that you suggested here. Like I like what you talked about earlier, the three questions. And I also like the one you're talking about, James Clear. You said he gives research stories. I like just that nuance. But I write everything in this journal. And I have about a hundred of these that I have written in over the years that I try to review. At some point, you have to trust your own research. So when I go to these healthcare seminars as a speaker, when I am in these, I speak in business mastermind groups called Vistage and Tech, the largest CEO mastermind group in North America, maybe the world. I go into these groups and I don't just say what is working with my presentations. When I hear their stories, I say, huh, there's a pattern there. They're talking about succession. They're talking about how difficult it is to hire senior leaders. How do I integrate that into my messaging on mentorship? How do I make sure that within my topic, within my homepage, some of these, but not too many, are integrated. I place my flag in some of these real world problems. And the other thing I'm doing, which your team has done with me over the years, and I do it, even though I'm asked regularly, I don't do it with everybody because I don't have time, but when your team is asked to write an article or give a quote, you know, on my website, that's happened over the last seven or eight years. I have been asking, I've asked about 40 leaders who I've worked with who have enough of a relationship where they trust me, and I've asked them if they can answer three questions on mentorship in their experience. Because what you said, another word you used was commercial examples, right? So I interpret that as don't just give stories about your grandmother, which I do on my website. See if you can find examples that go above and beyond everybody's not origin story about, you know, how they overcame the great odds in their personal life, which a lot of people do, and I think those are important, absolutely. Can you give examples from the real world that the audience goes, that's me. That's me. And that's hard. That's really hard because a lot of people don't want to be quoted. They want to be anonymous. But can you give examples that you can stand behind in your research? That's what I'm leaning into with what got you here won't get you there. I didn't give as many examples on my website. Now I'm saying, what are the examples? What are the results that I can quote or I can attribute, even though sometimes in leadership, it's hard to give a very clear went from here to there. But I can try, I can aim for that and get closer than I was in the past, where I was maybe giving 50% effort. Now I'm like 100% effort.

Common Communication Mistakes to Avoid

Rana Shahbaz 41:32

Yeah, amazing. You mentioned a very important part of shipping your work. I think uh Seth Gordon is the excellent example of this one. He's uh godfather of marketing. I don't uh recently, you know, uh follow him very much, but until I was following him regularly, he was publishing blog posts every day since 1995. I'm I'm sure he must be doing still. So every day he publishes minimum one, sometimes multiple blog posts. So that's this is the word marketing advice he that he always gives that you have to create. But ship shipping your work is very important. And also uh share regarding the website. Website is a living and breathing piece, so you can always update it. Don't dilute your position, keep it that. But with the words, you can always come back and you can improve, test, and improve. And also with website, a blog or article section is very important where you can experiment, you can you know keep writing new pieces and see what works and do more of that. So that's just uh another suggestion. So keep shipping regularly. I loved your you know, journals and you you mentioned you got hundreds of uh of these. What are the common mistakes people or businesses do when it comes to communicating clearly? Are there any top three we can we can share for people?

Jamie Mason Cohen 42:51

They give too much information. Less is more. You said it early about the power of simplicity. I learned that if I can give the topic a little more space and I can focus on one big idea, easier said than done, takes a lot to get there. I think Victor Hugo, the writer of Le Miserable, apologized to someone in a letter and he said, I'm sorry for the long I'm sorry for the long letter. I didn't have enough time to write a short letter.

Rana Shahbaz 43:17

Well, yeah, I I write some, yeah, exactly.

Engaging Your Audience Effectively

Jamie Mason Cohen 43:22

And I think that's the same for your positioning, your messaging, and your speeches or any presentation. Be bold in your choices, choose one big idea and defend that. Maybe show different parts of that, give examples, tell stories, tell case studies, and be clear in your communication that when you tell a story, you tell them why you're telling them this story. So don't just tell them the story, say the reason I'm telling you the story or I'm sharing this case study is because. So we can keep going, but the first two things is less is more. Inexperienced speakers or communicators or people who are showing that. They're throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks, put up too much information. I'll give you an example again with the websites. There's these, there's this, I was on a website. I found him because uh I'm not gonna mention the name, obviously, these very competent executive coaches, leadership coaches. There's a lot of executive coaches. And I was just curious. I wasn't judging or being competitive. I just checked their website out. And they had a list of their offerings, and they had, I'm not kidding you, about 25 offerings. Leadership and values, leadership and sustainability, leadership in this. And I looked at this and I thought either they're the most brilliant minds in the history of leadership, that they can be an expert in all of these areas, and they're younger than me. So I was like, wow. Or they are putting everything up there and just seeing what lands, and they're not really sure what their specific area where they help people the most. So that would be an example of a website, which I used to do. I had seven topics, it's a bit much. Now I have really three, right? I talk about mentorship in the age of AI, but I can get more specific in that. I talk about clarity under pressure as a communicator, and I'm gearing that toward healthcare because that's who's hired me. If someone outside of healthcare hired me, I'm happy to take those jobs. But I know my niche. I know where I've over the last six years mastered how to help people tell compliant stories with authenticity and confidence. And then the third area is moderation. Why am I saying that? Because I'm effective at that, partly through the podcast. I have the story through the podcast. I've been doing moderation. I just did a big moderation and live question and answer on a stage in Calgary in front of 150 executives. So those are it. That's it. Those three, right? Less is more. And so you need to really focus on one to three key places that you can master. If we're talking about, I'm I'm shifting now. When you tell stories, tell people why you're telling those stories. Here's another one that only came through experience. I used to like in presentations to be really creative at the beginning and do something metaphorical or interesting. And I realized that's okay. But most audiences are more analytical. They don't, I'm contradicting myself a little bit here, it sounds like it. I said you've got to connect with people, connection before confidence. When you go on stage, the way you're dressed, the way you present yourself, your energy, that's part of your connection, your confidence. So I pay a lot of attention to how I show up emotionally. I do yoga before I do presentations. I write in my journal and morning page. If there's any negative thoughts, any self-doubt, I write down. It's called morning pages. So I care a lot about my emotional imprint and my energy because executive presence is really executive energy, not presence. Presence comes second. So when you show up, connecting with the audience with your smile, with your energy, with your confidence, that's the most important thing first. But you've got to transition right away, and this is where people make mistakes. Memorize the first thing you say. You've got to jump right in. So those analytical people will feel your energy. That's the first 30 seconds where you're not even talking. It's how you show up. And then you got to tell them exactly what this is about today. You've got to make them feel comfortable so they can relax and go, oh, I'm in the right place. I'm going to learn something. I'm going to benefit. It's going to be relevant for my background. How you do that is up to you. Here are a few ways you can start. You can start off by saying, This, this is so non-creative, but this works better than the most creative, fun thing you can think of. Unless you're like, you know, one in a million comedian or or someone who's famous and they, you know, they and they'd love seeing a famous person for a few minutes. You say, this talk today is about X. Okay. You say to them, you ask them a question, like you asked a question. You could start off if you were doing at a web conference, if you're talking about webs. What do you do? What are you, who are you, and how do you help people? Those are the three questions I frame every discussion when it comes to developing your website in 2026. Why is that, why is that more effective than the most creative thing you can think? Because they're like, oh, Rana's speaking to me. I want to learn in. I'm leaning in now. So talk about the topic, talk about, ask questions. You can give a quote. Sometimes I say, when I did the Saturday night leaders, I called it, which is leadership through the lens of a live comedy show. I would start off by saying, Learn Michaels used to say to us, the show's not ready because it's finished. The show's ready because it's 11:30 on Saturday night. I memorized it. It's interesting. It connects to my topic and it creates a frame. When I did the handwriting, right? When I did the handwriting talk, I started by saying I help people discover their strengths and blind spots through their handwriting. The FBI used to do this. Actually, you know what? Renault, why don't you come up on stage? I'm going to do it in front of everybody. Boom. That's another one. Coach people. So try not to talk the whole time. Find ways to bring people into the discussion as quickly as possible. We need a balance today between lecturing and interaction. And the way that I frame that is be the guide on the side in your topic, not the sage on the stage. I think you're probably good at that, just my impression of you. Guide on the side, not the sage on the stage. When people are starting out, they think I'm the expert, so I have to talk down to people and share all my wisdom. No, no. They can get the same information with you times 100, with New York Times bestsellers, TED Talks, and ChatGPT. You have to find a way to bring the best out of them, even in a keynote, in order, well, not just a keynote, in any type of communication, which goes back to a give and take. Give, but also take.

Rana Shahbaz 49:32

Fantastic, Jamie. This is you know brilliant advice. And I think if people can take only one thing that show goes live because it's 11:30, not because it's it's ready. So that that is, I think that can change many growth trajectories of the of the businesses. So thank you so much for this. Is a brilliant advice. Next one is a couple of more questions and then we'll probably finish. What is the first step? What is the next step businesses can take starting from today to go on to that clear communication journey?

Taking the Next Step in Communication

Jamie Mason Cohen 50:03

The next step is no no one, don't be too hard on yourself. You be you. Don't try to copy people entirely or say, I want to be that person. You can be like that person. But I would say the next thing would be it depends on the kind of communication. So context matters. The three things that I would say, which is you said one, but the next step briefly would be try to find out what you're already doing well. Right. So I tend to focus on strengths first. What are you already doing well? What do people already respond to? Whether it's your website, whether it's your interaction, whether it's your speeches, however you communicate, what are you already doing well? What have people said to you? Or people don't always give compliments. I think people should give more compliments. Maybe you're a very good listener. That is maybe the most important part of communication in today's world. We need more listeners than speakers. And then once you identify what that strength is, what you can do is, depending on the area of expertise, if it's for websites, go to Rana and his group. If it's for speaking, go to someone like me and ask them what's one thing I can improve today? And we mentioned James Claire, he talks about 1% improvement. If you make 1% improvement in your communication, whether it's your body language, your eye contact, how you start a speech, your energy that you bring in connecting with people during a speech, your hero section in your website, any of those will make a difference.

Rana Shahbaz 51:26

Amazing, uh Jamie. Following this uh, you know, brilliant suggestion, I would take one more benefit of your journaling and your hundreds of talk talks you have done at uh at a business uh conferences. What is your favorite or number one growth hack you picked up with all these experiences? The businesses where everybody's looking to grow. So is there one pattern or commonality or your your favorite takeaway which worked with most businesses?

Jamie Mason Cohen 51:52

Start a podcast. Why? Because a podcast helps you grow authority in your field. Like Rana and I are connecting here. It's as much about this conversation as it is about an abstract group of people out there. You develop relationships with people who you might want to collaborate with or get to know better or learn from. And also, it's a wonderful place to develop organic referrals and build relationships in an unforced way because people get to know about you and you get to know about them. And if there's any synergy or alignment there, it will show up in that podcast moving forward.

Rana Shahbaz 52:28

I could not agree more, Jamie. Thank you very much, you know, for another brilliant advice. Last but uh where where people can connect with you and learn more about you and do work with you.

Jamie Mason Cohen 52:38

To my new updated website that I continually to work or continually work on, which is jamasoncohen.com. J-A-M-I-E-M-A-S-O-N Cohen, C-O-H-E-N, all lowercase.com.

Rana Shahbaz 52:51

Brilliant. We will put this uh link into our show notes as well so people can find you. Uh thank you, Jamie, for the brilliant advice. And if you like it, please consider subscribing for upcoming episodes. Thank you very much.

Jamie Mason Cohen 53:03

My pleasure, Rana. Always great to talk to you.

Rana Shahbaz 53:05

But that's it for this episode of the website growth show. If you find it helpful, please consider subscribing. Until next time, keep growing.