Keynote Speaker Business - Joshua M Evans

Joshua is on a mission to fundamentally change the way people view their work by bringing deeper purpose into the workplace. The modern workplace have increased levels of uncertainty leading to individuals becoming burned out, disengaged, unfulfilled, and unhappy. Joshua is destroying toxic workplace preconceptions and pursuing a future of work where individuals derive deeper meaning and purpose in the work they do.

In truth, Joshua M. Evans is a pretty wild character. He’s a Keynote Speaker, TEDx programmer, #1 best selling author, adventure seeker, former white water rafting guide and corporate executive, and father of 3.

Joshua has spoken to 100’s of organizations including AmericanExpress, GE, Starbucks, ExxonMobil, and many others. His insights have been featured in: Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, INC. and others.

www.twitter.com/enthusiasticyou
https://joshuamevans.com
josh@joshuamevans.com
713-907-5854

SPONSORED BY: Kefi Spaces, Houston, TX. https://kefispaces.com/ Co-Warehousing, Fulfillment, office space and more. Call today 713-661-2701.

If you liked today's show - please let Laura know by either contacting her at laura@fisherpodcast.com or give her a great review. Also, if you know of someone who would be an inspiring guests, let her know… even if it's you. Until then… "You better be Up to something!"

If you liked today's show - please let Laura know by either contacting her at laura@fisherpodcast.com or give her a great review. Also, if you know of someone who would be an inspiring guests, let her know… even if it's you. Until then… "You better be Up to something!"

Transcript

Laura Fisher: 0:02

Welcome to small business insights where back office conversations give us insight to what's really going on? Is it grit, or luck, that gives a small business owner an advantage? Let's find out. I'm your host, Laura Fisher. Well, hello. And today, my special guest is V. Joshua M. Evans, keynote speaker, and he speaks about company culture expert. Well, that's what he is. And then key what theme is

Joshua Evans: 0:34

it all starts with purpose.

Laura Fisher: 0:36

Thank you. Thank you, openings are never that smooth. Joshua, thank you for coming in today. And I've never had a keynote speaker here. So I'd like to know how you got started. And then we'll also talk about how you make it into a business. So give us a little input on how you got started. And what do you go around talking about?

Joshua Evans: 0:58

That's a great question. So I speak all over the world. And I speak on bringing purpose back to the workplace. And I think right now people are facing a level of uncertainty that has never before been experienced. And because of that, it's causing a lot of disjointed workplaces is causing people to disengaged to become unfulfilled to be unhappy. And I think a lot of the problems behind that stem from the fact that people do not see purpose behind their work. It's not just about money, I don't think it should be, I think on day one, everybody's excited to start their job they get there on day one, they got their cup of coffee, they're excited to take on the work. And on day 500, they want to stab their coworker. So what happened, it's not that their job changed, their perspective of their job changed. And I think if I can help people remember why they cared so much, it allows them to reclaim purpose behind their work. And so I speak all over the world doing that to large audiences, it's sometimes small audiences, but it's organizations or individuals that they may still see purpose, but they can't see it every day, because they're inundated with the day to day minutia, the stuff that gets in the way. And so I help them look past all that minutia, like the unread emails and the Zoom meetings and the KPIs and the office politics so that they can reclaim purpose for their work, and then subsequently help their team rediscover and reclaim purpose as well.

Laura Fisher: 2:10

So when somebody calls you, are they having a problem? How do they figure out they need to hear from you?

Joshua Evans: 2:15

Well usually besomebody that's they're having an event or they're having a an internal, you know, company retreat or leadership retreat, or they're having a large professional association event. And then what what kind of problems are our team members or our audience facing and if they're facing where people are disengaging or people lack like fulfillment in their work or their burnout? Maybe Maybe people are starting to feel complacent,

Laura Fisher: 2:36

just a lot of shifts in the workplace. Exactly.

Joshua Evans: 2:38

That's when they're like, Okay, who can we bring in to help recalibrate these individuals to help inspire exactly

Laura Fisher: 2:43

What makes you an expert?

Joshua Evans: 2:44

I was a weird kid, I was the kid that was always like, Oh, give me a microphone. Like my parents would turn around at like a festival. And they look around and like, where's Josh, and then they would see me on the stage with the band like holding the microphone like, hi, everybody. I'm Josh. But how I really got into speaking, I was in the corporate world for over 10 years, mostly in software and technology, sales, seminar, oil and gas. And I had seen lots of different cultures, companies of all sides, we had a company that I worked for, that was 30 people, I had a company that was 90,000 people. And so I've got to see a lot of different cultures and a lot of different ways in which organizations engage their talent. And it gave me some insight to that. But the real way, I turned into a keynote speakers, I got into an argument one day, I literally got into an argument with a guy that I was working with, and we were at a client's office, and we were in sales, and he was my technical guy. And we were talking through what we could do. And I told him this very small deal and this huge opportunity for our company. And we're walking out of there. And I'm just so excited. Because as a salesperson, you know, this paid on commission, like I see dollar signs. I'm really excited. And he goes, Josh, why would you tell him we could do all that? I thought, well, because we can use it, but it's gonna be so much work. I was like, but this is our job. Like, how can you be so despondent and I was just so taken aback by how lackluster he found this opportunity, how despondent he was, and I went home that night, and my wife was working late. And so I was sitting with my dog drinking a glass of scotch, and I just started venting in dictation mode to my iPad. And, you know, over the course of the evening, it turned to a lot of words. And so a few days later, I came back to and I looked at it, I was like, you know, this is pretty bad. But some of it's not There's something in there. Exactly. And so I started adding to it over the next two years, still maintaining my professional career. I wrote a book accidentally, we just started adding stuff. And then by happenstance, I ran into a publisher. And she said, I would love to work with you send me the manuscript. And so we looked at over, they did a big marketing campaign. And when they did their marketing, it was pretty amazing. It became a number one bestseller, the name of the book, it's called Enthusiastic You and I reread it recently, and I'm not impressed. The next book I think, will be good. But no. And so when it became a number one bestseller, I said, this is what I want to do. And so I gave my two weeks to my boss, he's like, Okay, are you going to a competitor is like, Nope, I'm going to do my own thing. He's like, alright, well, best of luck.

Laura Fisher: 4:51

So you jumped in as an idea. You didn't have things book.

Joshua Evans: 4:54

No, I didn't. Again, nothing booked. I had no idea how to run a business. I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, luckily, I mean, I I had a pretty good job. And I was a very good saver. I set myself up financially to be able to make that jump. Yeah. And then that first year of business, I made negative money.

Laura Fisher: 5:11

But this is how you start your business.

Joshua Evans: 5:13

This is how I started my business,

Laura Fisher: 5:13

You have to invest in yourself

Joshua Evans: 5:15

Exactly. And the biggest problem and I think that and I don't want to get too far along, I think some of the biggest problems that that I face as an entrepreneur early is that I didn't know what was a good investment or a bad investment. We have these moments where we question ourselves, we question our decision making abilities. I mean, I've made some bad investments in my business. And it was it was poor marketing campaigns, or hiring the wrong people to do to do marketing.

Laura Fisher: 5:37

But But you knew your product was good, right?

Joshua Evans: 5:40

I didn't know how unprepared I was. And I probably wouldn't have jumped had I known.

Laura Fisher: 5:45

Ok so stepping forward, you've been at the seven year. So obviously, you've come past that,

Joshua Evans: 5:50

Yes. And so the first couple of years were rough. And then I started to learn the ropes, I found people that were doing what I was doing, or something similar. And I studied them. And I became a scholar at how other people were running their speaking businesses. And so there was I found in any business, there's somebody out there that can train you on the on the money piece behind it. And so I found somebody that does that. And they were, they were already way far ahead of me.

Laura Fisher: 6:14

So you found a mentor?

Joshua Evans: 6:15

that I was gonna mentor, I say, mentor, I paid him to go to these classes. And it was phenomenal. And all of a sudden, things started breaking loose. And of course, you know, early on in business, like you celebrate every win, right? So I had a bunch of small wins, I was getting very excited, and I was getting booked. And those are leading to more events. Because if you perform well, at one event, somebody sees you and we should get him for our event. And the second I started doing that momentum started building and then just like any business, you start hitting ceilings, and so I hit my first ceiling with the industry that I first started speaking in, and I noticed, okay, they can't pay me above this amount. I'm getting this amount, but they don't have budgets beyond this. Okay, well, what's the next level for me? And so I started looking beyond that.

Laura Fisher: 6:52

Did you have to change the way you did your speaking to go to the next level?

Unknown: 6:57

No, I had to change the way I did my marketing,

Laura Fisher: 6:59

Same message. You just had to repackage it?

Joshua Evans: 7:02

Exactly. And so you take the small shifts and the small things and so you try stuff out, I split test my marketing campaigns. I'm sure your audience knows all about that. But I tried two different avenues. And the one that that took hold next was a lot of HR associations, which is great, because when I'm talking about purpose in the workplace, I'm preaching to the choir, right. I mean, they're Labradors like, yeah, you're right, you're right. And so that and so I started shifting there, and I started building business on that side, and then you feel your way, it's feeling your way in the dark, right? You move towards your endgame. But it's, it's such a meandering path. And it's a cliche because it is true, right.

Laura Fisher: 7:38

So once you found your market and your niche, and you found an audience, tell us a little bit more about what you actually talk about to people in your marketing. It starts with purpose. And specifically in your marketing, I read you talk about the millennial generation. And I'm a business owner, and I hire people. And sometimes I can only afford the millennial, you know, I can't afford the older folks, you know, that have all that experience. What do you talk to folks about

Joshua Evans: 8:05

every generation thinks that the generation behind them is less driven? That's yeah, less driven, less caring, less important. And the problem I have with that is we're discounting huge opportunity. A lot of these millennials, if you can get them fired, if you can give them a reason to care about their work, they'll work harder than anybody else, and they'll work for less money. So

Laura Fisher: 8:26

that's, that's what the purpose is. Exactly. So what kind of purpose is it going to be a professional purpose or personal purpose? It's her second gig.

Joshua Evans: 8:33

I don't think those two are mutually Exactly. This is this is for her to get money so exclusive. And I'll go deeper into that. Okay. So I think that she can she can do whatever she loves. I want to find out anybody can have purpose behind the work that they're doing right now. I don't care what how menial the tasks seem, or how what she loves. And so I always ask this, what do you do when mundane the job functions are, I think you can still derive purpose from it, because what we fail to do is follow the impact that our work has. And so we'll finish a project will shoot off an email, and then it ends there. And we go on to the next project. Think about the next thing I have to complete the next deadline. The next KPI I have to achieve. And the problem with that is when we're just focused down we forget what the work we're doing actually does have an impact other people, I was at an event in Tucson, Arizona, and I had to fly to New York for an event the next morning, I had a 6am flight. And I had to schedule an Uber to pick me up at four. So I'm you're not driving for Uber? And she goes, Oh, well, I manage an sitting there waiting for my Uber outside this Holiday Inn and up pulls this Toyota and I did that dance that everybody does were like, Oh, are you Gabriella? And she's like, Yeah, are you Josh? It's like a shoe ramp. So I hopped in. So as this one, okay, I know if she's driving Uber, likely she's doing it to fund her passion project, because that's what most people do. Right? upscale restaurant here in Tucson, and I go, Oh, that must be very fulfilling. And she goes, No, it's not. And then she followed it up with something I've never heard before she goes, I'm just so passionate about driving for Uber. I was like what you're passionate Okay. Nobody's passionate about driving. I've heard it's great. The hours are nice pays well had never heard anybody say their passion. So I dug in. It's like, why are you Patrick? Because I only drive after midnight to 6am. That's when people need help the most to get home. And she went on Yeah. And she went on to tell me that even sometimes she'll go to like the bar district within Tucson, and she'll give people rides that don't have money, because she doesn't want them driving. And I thought that was so amazing. Like she's seen the impact her work is that this person is now home safe because of the work that she did. So ask why do you why do you do this? It's amazing. And she was well, my sister died in a drunk driving accident couple years ago. And so I do this. So nobody else has to go through that pain. And I was like, this is a woman that has such a deeper purpose behind your work,

Laura Fisher: 10:42

Right

Joshua Evans: 10:42

Why can't we all and this led me on this kind of internal journey where now I figured out that if we can follow the impact that our work has everybody's work has, it's just so invaluable if we really get to where the impact is. Let's talk about this podcast for a second. So if you take this podcast, yeah, what your role is, is podcast host, I'm a podcast guest. What we do is talk, ask questions, listen, and make pithy comments. Great. That's what it does. Not not compelling. But we can talk about the impact that this podcast has on its listeners, let's let's take for a minute that there's somebody out there that's trying to start a business is lacking a certain idea, or a skill or strategy to go to market with, you're literally providing them with an opportunity to gain knowledge so that they're better so they can actually build a business so that they can achieve their dreams. It's amazing.

Laura Fisher: 11:27

Yeah, I want them to get a nugget of something. Exactly. That's so invaluable.

Joshua Evans: 11:31

The end, if you were only thinking about, Okay, I have to, you know, I have to put on the opening. And I have to go ahead and upload it after share all this on social media, if you're only thinking about those things, you would not care about your work, you have to be thinking about the person that it's helping that that person that has an idea for a business, or somebody that just started a small business and they're struggling, and they they're looking for a life preserver. That's what this podcast is providing to them. And if you can remember that, of course, you can maintain it, a view on the purpose that you have, and if we can look at anybody can look at their job and the impact it has on the final person, right? That really benefits from it, it helps you remember why you should care.

Laura Fisher: 12:08

You're absolutely right. I know for me, I've had some jobs I don't particularly like but they were for a purpose. I worked for Katy ISD. And I loved the job. But my purpose was not to work. It was to provide health insurance for my family, because we're a small business owner, and we didn't have insurance. And so when I would have a bad day, I'm like, No, I'm doing this for my family. You know, I have purpose. So that's a personal, but I also like to do good work. So worked out well,

Joshua Evans: 12:33

Indeed. And I think all generations desire to feel fulfillment in their work. And if they can attach it to, you know, because this providing for my family, that's great, or if they need to attach it because it makes them feel philanthropic. I understand that too. If you look at Toms Shoes, people buy their shoes, because they give away one pair to somebody that doesn't have shoes, people like that feeling of giving of others, even if you're still receiving something for it. It's a phenomenal business model for a consumer good. It's also a great model for us as individuals, right? We want to feel like we're providing value. And if we can see how we're positively impacting somebody else's life, it allows us to see the purpose behind that work.

Laura Fisher: 13:07

So what is the takeaway that someone gets when they listen to one of your speeches,

Joshua Evans: 13:11

there's a few things that we should be doing as individuals, right, we lose sight of why we cared. And so if I had to boil it under to three things, it would be to manage the influences in your life, direct your perceptions, and move towards meaning in the work that you do. And so you unpack that through? Yeah, so I impact that through through silly stories and some jokes, and then some audience interaction so that they can see how we are everybody's being constantly influenced by the things in their lives. And if we're not being cognizant of those things, it's impacting us without our knowledge.

Laura Fisher: 13:42

So as an employer, so I would be listening to what am I, what are the messages I'm sending throughout the day to my employees,

Joshua Evans: 13:49

if you want your people to be at their best for you, you need to make sure you're setting them up for success, but even starts back to like, our personal routines and habits, right, like whether we're looking at the news or social media before work, those things are hugely detrimental to our mental health, and to how we approach the rest of the day. People think, Oh, I can look at the news or social media. It doesn't impact me, because we're adults, and we're not immune to it. Alright, so

Laura Fisher: 14:09

you traveling quite a bit, right?

Joshua Evans: 14:11

Yeah, I travel a fair amount. So

Laura Fisher: 14:12

They call you do they say Hey, Josh, I want you to come to my event. What kind of timeline? Are you planning ahead? Do you have gigs booked

Joshua Evans: 14:20

pre COVID I was I was booking stuff out about nine months to a year ahead. That was the standard is around nine months. Then COVID hit and I cancelled 16 round trip flights. Yeah. And which was crazy. And we went virtual, I only had one actually cancelled all the rest just went virtual. And I did virtually you were blessed. Here's the thing. Nobody knew what we were doing. And I didn't know what I was doing either. And so I was doing anything I could to maintain my audiences. Exactly, obviously, and not only that, I had a lot of

Laura Fisher: 14:51

deposits well, and you're starting your career. So you have momentum, you're getting momentum.

Joshua Evans: 14:55

I was I was definitely getting momentum heading into COVID. And I didn't want to lose that and so I didn't stop my marketing, but my marketing shifted. Okay, look. So instead of talking about, okay, how can we overcome the challenges in our work? How can we overcome anxiety in the workplace, you can't be tone deaf to what's going on in the world, right. And with that, I had all these deposits, I was like, Look, if you want the DeVos back, I'm happy to give it to one person. The other is good. No, we want to find something else. So I did a bunch of virtual events, one actually in person event in September of 2020, which was awesome, because I just missed it. And then a bunch more virtual events, and then stuff sort of breaking loose again, in the summer of 21, I had an in person event in northern Michigan on Mackinac Island. And then that afternoon, I had a virtual event for Florida, it allowed me as a business owner to do two gigs in one day, which you rarely get to do, unless it's the same organization,

Laura Fisher: 15:46

But you're missing the interaction.

Joshua Evans: 15:48

There's ways you can do that. And as a professional speaker, you watch others, and you figure out what they're doing. Oh, he did some sort of an erection at the beginning where he had people typing, I'm gonna have them do that. And some people are doing something differently. Ooh, how are they doing that? That's really cool. I want to I want to do something like that. And I read a book years ago called The idea Hunter and set this mode of operation. And if I see a really funny idea, a really cool idea or really fascinating business card, I write it down, I take note of it, because there's something about it. And if I could figure out if I can unpack why that's so interesting. It'll it'll allow me to use that as as as an opportunity or a tool. Like I saw, I saw a business card the other day, it was for a doctor, and the middle of his card was clear, convex plastic. And so you can use it as a magnifying glass. Oh, no. Okay, well, that is so fast, because it's something I can actually use. And it's his calling card, and it directly ties to his business. And so like, that's how I impacted. It's like, well, how can I do a cool business card like that? Where it's actually kind of like a gift or something unique? Yeah, that's kind of the way I run my businesses, which is very tangential. So you've got some gigs booked? Yeah. I'll be in Dublin next week for an event. Yeah.

Laura Fisher: 16:53

How did you get that gig?

Joshua Evans: 16:54

They were looking for a speaker for this event. And they saw my website, and then they just they said, Oh, this guy, it seems like it would be a really good fit for what we're looking for. I guess we're looking. These are owners of businesses. And we're looking for a way to bring purpose and deeper engagement back to our companies. In essence, let's hire Josh. And so they filled out my contact form my email, and we start negotiations. And now I'll be flying out there, which is great. So I'll do that. And then I get back and I'm here for two days. And I go to Kansas City. That's as far as I'm looking at, like so my stuff gets booked on my calendar, and I put everything in there like the hotel and the rides and everything. And then I don't even look at it to like the month of it was Okay, where am I flying this month?

Laura Fisher: 17:28

Yeah. Awesome. All right. We're gonna take a quick break. And we come back. Josh, I want to talk to you a little bit more about the business of it. How'd you get started? How do you do your marketing, the logistics of it, how you craft the message for the event? So we'll be right back.

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Laura Fisher: 18:10

Alright, we're back with Joshua M. Evans. He is a keynote speaker. And he specializes in company culture. He's an expert on that. And he talks about how you need to have purpose in the workforce that cover that right. That sounds perfect. Awesome. All right. So I want to talk about the business of how you made yourself to be a keynote speaker. How did you know you were ready to go 100% Because most folks, they are working in the corporate job like you were. And then you say, have an idea. And you're like, I'm ready to jump in 100% How do you know it was time? I

Joshua Evans: 18:42

didn't know it was time, to be honest with you. But I had an old mentor that I had worked for at a company and when I was working for him, I told him, Hey, I you know, there's this woman, I love her the minute get married to her. But I don't know if I'm ready. And he's Josh, you're never ready for anything. And then I talked to him a couple years later, when we became pregnant with our first kid and oh, man, I'm gonna be a father. I don't know if I'm ready. And the same piece of wisdom, he tossed it back at me again over coffee. He's like, Josh, you're never ready for anything. It's stuck with me. And so after my first cup was born, it was about a year after that. I wasn't ready. But the book came out. And we mark it as like this. This is what I want to do. And I know that if I if I sprint towards it, I can make progress. And I can figure it out. And so I set a timeline for you know how my business like I want to make this by this year and this by that year, and I was nowhere near those numbers and

Laura Fisher: 19:34

You had some type of business plan. You put it down on paper.

Joshua Evans: 19:39

I told my wife I had a business plan. I had a loosely constructed straw house and my business plan. Okay.

Laura Fisher: 19:46

But she had a book you had a product. I had a book publisher, publisher give you some support. Right? It was all financial. Yeah,

Joshua Evans: 19:54

yeah. And so if I'm being real honest, I made very little money off the book, right. I make money off the book now but In publishing the book and getting it ready and getting out to market, it was a piece of marketing because once we became a best seller, that's, that's a piece of credibility that I can go to the marketplace with, right? It's now all of a sudden, okay, what sets me apart from any other competition? Well, he's, he's the number one best selling author. Okay, that's something right. And then beyond that, you just start building other other credit agencies, you start working for bigger companies. So now becomes, you know, these are the list of companies I've worked for. And all of a sudden, like they started starts looking pretty good. Now, was it was it getting huge fees, then? No, I was not. And so the first couple of years, it was not easy. It was rough.

Laura Fisher: 20:30

But you mentioned earlier, you are a saver you had had so planning, exactly planning and savings.

Joshua Evans: 20:37

I am a planner, my wife is a saver, she's taught me to be one. But we had we'd saved up money to be able to cover our expenses. And she was still working full time at the time. And so when I left, we still had insurance. And we had, you know, a pile of reserves in case you needed it, and just slowly started figuring out the business. And I mean, it was a lot of wrong turns on dead ends, he had a backup and then come forward again. It was hard. The first couple I mean, it just is with like any business, it really is, um, I mean, overnight, success doesn't happen.

Laura Fisher: 21:06

I'm thinking like most entrepreneurs, you feel alone, you're working this out on your by yourself, right?

Joshua Evans: 21:11

Absolutely. And I felt really alone for the first year. And then I found a small group of people that were in similar places where I was where their fees were similar to mine, and they were trying to try and explain to the market. And all of a sudden, we had this awesome collective or we could get to get into okay, this is the problem I'm facing. Have y'all seen it? Yeah, we've seen that problem.

Laura Fisher: 21:30

Exactly. Did you find a peer group like that?

Joshua Evans: 21:32

Well, and so some of them came from a course I took on the business of professional speaking because once again, I'm trying to learn right now, while while I'm falling, I'm mending this parachute. And so I took this course. And I met a few other people at that course.

Laura Fisher: 21:44

Did you have to pay for the course. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So it was a noted speaker

Joshua Evans: 21:48

retreat. Yeah. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna plug the guy because it was a phenomenal course anybody wants to be a keynote speaker. It's called a paid to speak conference. And it's a guy named Ken Julian. And he was a phenomenal mentor. And then I mean, he's become a friend. But he was doing all the right things in business. I was like, Okay, this is a person I want to learn from, that's awesome. So you're wasting money on people I shouldn't have been learning from to, but that just comes with a business.

Laura Fisher: 22:09

I've had a lot of guests that come in and say don't pay for a lot of stuff. Because a lot of it can be a waste of time. So I'm glad that you found something that worked

Joshua Evans: 22:17

Especially early on, right when you're just starting to make money in your business. Okay, I need to spend more money on this or on you know, Google ads or on you know, you know, AdWords. Exactly, and you're just spraying and praying. And it's so hard to know what's going to be a good investment for your organization and what's not, I still make bad decisions with marketing. So sometimes I make good decisions. I recently I hired a phenomenal organization to redo my website. I'm so glad I heard that because it

Laura Fisher: 22:43

Looks really nice. It sets you up to look at it. What sets you up to look professional and trendy in a good way.

Joshua Evans: 22:49

How am I trendy?

Laura Fisher: 22:50

It's the way you're dressed on the blue suit. You look hip, you look like the kind of guy

Joshua Evans: 22:56

I'm not I'm just I'm so not.

Laura Fisher: 22:59

The marketing is working. It makes you love it make me look cool. You look cool. That's it? I'm not cool. I'm not what do you have to do for the daily marketing? Are you posting yourself? Or is your marketing people doing it?

Joshua Evans: 23:12

So I've tried a few different ways. I had a marketing team help posting stuff, but the problem became that wasn't my voice. And so it gets off tangent, and then I was spending more time managing what they were putting out there than I would have been just making my own content,

Laura Fisher: 23:27

let's back up. That's key, because that is who you are. It has to have your voice.

Joshua Evans: 23:33

Well, especially for my business. It's it's absolutely critical. And it has to be my tone. Otherwise, it's they're gonna the wrong audience is gonna see it and find it right like me.

Laura Fisher: 23:41

And I know from my experience, it's all in that editing, editing, editing, and getting it down to like the two or three sentences that really say what you mean to say, but it takes a long time to get there.

Joshua Evans: 23:51

What does that famous quote by Mark Twain is that, sorry, the letter would have been shorter, but I didn't have enough time.

Laura Fisher: 23:59

So tell me more about how you the marketing because in So marketing is always an issue for every company, anybody. But for you. Your marketing has to have your image because you are the product and your voice. That's the same for all companies. For me. When somebody walks in the building. I know my company is business esuite or imperial storage solutions, but when they see me, I'm the owner. There's something about seeing an owner, how are you managing that? And how do you keep it going? Because finding content, little snippets of content to keep people interested?

Joshua Evans: 24:34

Yeah, it's not easy. I go through like bouts with social media, because I have a disdain for it. But I was really early in adopting LinkedIn. I was first when I first saw my career that was the first social media platform I ever on. It's really a business platform. I like I love it. And so I was on it very early, and I'll be posting yours on LinkedIn by the way. Oh, good. Yeah, I will share it with my following of all 50 people now I have more net. I love LinkedIn, because it's a great data mining tool, you can literally find every customer you should be in front of

Laura Fisher: 25:08

That's interesting. How do you use LinkedIn, you use it as a business tool.

Joshua Evans: 25:11

I don't use it to consume other people's content. Okay, I love LinkedIn for sharing insightful content. I love LinkedIn for connecting with people that are like minded connected with people that I could help connected people that could help me. I mean, all these little things. LinkedIn is a phenomenal tool. I know the I know, all other platforms are, are great for what they're for. But for my business, LinkedIn was the right way.

Laura Fisher: 25:34

You are business to business. Exactly. That's what your product is. .

Joshua Evans: 25:36

Exactly. So that's my platform. I have presence on the other platforms. But that's more social. It's not even more social. I don't I don't go on them. I post them. Okay, which sounds terrible. How dare you write I'm one of the people that's flooding, all these other things. But I'm not as vigilant as I used to be. I was pretty vigilant for a while, but do content every single day. But if unless I have something really substantial to say, I'm not going to do that, no, I love sharing other content that I find very fast, right? So like the new Gallup poll on employee engagement, it was it was crazy to me because Okay, the numbers have shifted after COVID People are back in the office, and now, people are less engaged than they've ever been. And it's phenomenal zap with the new numbers, a 79% of people are disengaged in their work, which is crazy. That's sad, damn you 71% of people at every organization are doing just enough to not get fired. It's crazy.

Laura Fisher: 26:24

It breaks my heart. Because there's been so much time somewhere. Yeah, and not like it Oh, my gosh, that sounds horrible is your number one goal is to get them to go to your website to fill out the form and say, talk to me, what are you trying to get them to do in your marketing,

Joshua Evans: 26:37

And I'm poor at call to actions in social media, because I feel like I see other people's call to actions, and it makes me feel kind of itchy. And so I don't want to be that kind of a guy. I'd rather give them

Laura Fisher: 26:48

Call me and I'll solve all your problems. You don't want to do that.

Joshua Evans: 26:50

I don't want to be that. Okay. Though, I could solve all the problems. I don't want to be the guy that's pushing my, my website on to others. And so I do keep a blog. And I do I have I have a list of people that I send that out to that are people that could potentially hire me like, Hey, here's something for your members, you know, how they can reengage in the new year or you know, here's how to get past the holiday.

Laura Fisher: 27:10

So you're creating content to bring people to your website? Exactly. So because your blog is on your website? Exactly. So have a newsletter. And how often are you doing that?

Joshua Evans: 27:19

I usually send it out about every five to six weeks. Okay. And so, I know some people do do this weekly good for them. That's not really, I don't have that kind of relationship with my, I guess my followship right now. And so that's, that's not what I do. I do share stuff on on LinkedIn weekly. And I do stuff like that. But as far as these articles, because I have a list of marketing that I email to, and it's Hey, you know, this is something I find useful. Also, the call to action is, if you have a need to bring this kind of message to your audience, I'd love to chat with you. And it's a link to either my Calendly or my or to my contact form.

Laura Fisher: 27:52

All right, so I know we do the same thing. And you don't always see results. But you may see the results two to three years from now because I go those planners. Yeah, I remember a guy. Okay, so logistics, there's not a lot of logistics involved.

Joshua Evans: 28:05

A lot of logistics involved. Okay, so marketing campaign, right marketing turns to leads, and we have our leads we have to manage. So we have new people coming in, we got to set up calls with them, we got to set up meetings, usually a Zoom meeting so they can talk to them and understand their event, understand their audience. See, if we're a good fit, right, then, then there's the production in the back of it. Because I always send videos to the Hey, it was a pleasure to speak with you. I'm honored to be considered. This, again, is what I talked about. Let me know if you need anything.

Laura Fisher: 28:32

And then so you sent a personalized little video. Absolutely. That's nice. Yeah. Because you are the product you're gonna I'm gonna look at you as you talk, the way you move all those things did they are involved in.

Joshua Evans: 28:42

Exactly, you gotta give him the tasting menu up first. And so I get a little taste of Joshua Yeah. And then after that, then you know, there's negotiations then there's contracts, then there's invoicing, there's billing, then there's you know, booking of travel and finally then there's the performance where I show up and actually met the engagement and and then there's travel back and then once again, after that it doesn't stop because then you have to you have to collect testimonials you want to see I want to see their I want to talk to their event team and do a post event call so I can understand how it can be better than next time and it's a long process and there's a lot of moving parts there.

Laura Fisher: 29:14

And it sounds awesome. You really have thought it through how

Joshua Evans: 29:17

I didn't at the beginning you learn these things where I wouldn't always send the little videos and I didn't always remember to send an invoice and

Laura Fisher: 29:22

Tell us about getting those testimonials is that easy to do.

Joshua Evans: 29:25

I find it pretty easy. There's some neat ways and I see some other people doing this I think I'm about to employ it but I like to approach people right after the event if your thoughts right it's usually the event planners or people on the events committee your team and and okay, what do you think really landed well and so that's so I make sure I know what I keep in my speeches because I just my speeches constantly okay, what could have gone better? Like what didn't land well with your audience and it might be maybe something maybe something was a little off tone because it's a different type of group or it that's always harder. People don't want to give bad testimonials. And it's not that I'm going to put that into testimony but I want to know what could have been better because I want to constantly be better. And that's I mean, that's, that's how I approach my business. Because if I'm not getting better I'm atrophying right. You're either green and growing or ripe and rotting. Right. That's how I approach it. And then once again, I do a post interview with the events team, and committee and Okay, give me your Give me your thoughts. And once again, that's another great way to extract testimonials. And also find out some of the stuff that I can change

Laura Fisher: 30:21

That's just a good business model. Because that's good for anything. When you sell something as a gift, let's talk about how somebody can reach you in case they need you to come and inspire their their staff.

Joshua Evans: 30:34

Yes, sure. So you can go to my website, Joshua

Laura Fisher: 30:36

M. Evans lives there. Now,

Joshua Evans: 30:39

let's talk about the M, there's an M there because my middle name is Mark, after my father, the real reason there's an M in my website is because some cheeky Senator out of Tennessee, I believe, has Joshua Evans. And I asked him if I would buy it, and he's refused to sell it. And we're at a we're an impasse. And so I'm Joshua M. Evans, and he is a lowly senator.

Laura Fisher: 30:59

So he has Joshua evans.com. And you don't go to

Joshua Evans: 31:03

that site. Go to Joshua M. evans.com. That's the one. All right,

Laura Fisher: 31:07

Yeah. Anything else you'd like to say? No, no, you can't?

Joshua Evans: 31:13

No, I, I have a lot more I can say, I don't know if we really have the time. I think that if there's one piece of advice Oh, and part to everybody is everybody faces challenges. Everybody faces obstacles. It's how we approach them? are we approaching them with a way of looking for solutions? are we approaching them with the mentality that I want to complain about them. And as a small business owner, you don't have the luxury of time that a lot of other people would, as a small business owner, or entrepreneur, you need to be looking for the opportunities and everything I had, I had a really neat boss years ago, where I went to him with a problem at work. And I remember the specific problem because Joshua have a great idea. I go what he goes, I want you to go back to your office, they get three solutions come back here. It's like, okay, and I came back and like I had two solutions to the problem. And the third one was like, forget about it, and go have a beer with my boss. And so I walked back into his office and said, Okay, give me your three solutions. And I gave him the three solutions. And he laughs He's like, good. Next time you have a problem, come up with three solutions. And come tell me three solutions. I was like, okay, he's like, I don't want you to bring me a problem anymore. Unless you have three solutions, because they don't even have to be good solutions. But I want three options, so we can discuss it. And it proves to me that you've actually spent the time to work on it. And it's not gonna complain. Exactly. And so from then on, it changed the way that I looked at a problem as an opportunity, right? A conflict is an opportunity to find resolution. And so in our small businesses, we're just we run around ragged, right? And we get stuck in our own minds. And we think that small setbacks are the biggest problems. I mean, being an entrepreneur or small business owner is like the only profession where you can go from pure elation to pure terror in the same hour. Absolutely. So realizing that that is how we approach them protein with the solutions mindset, it's so much more valuable to actually making progress. So that's where I'll leave you on.

Laura Fisher: 32:53

Alright, sounds good, good management tool. Absolutely. All right, Josh. Well, we're gonna say goodbye today. I'm so glad you stopped by. And I'd love to see your career grow. And you come back and tell me more about it in a couple years. Let me know where you've been and the success stories, then you're gonna have a lot more. I'm just confident of that. Well, thank you. We're gonna close it out. And Josh is gonna say my closing line. Until next time,

Joshua Evans: 33:19

You better be up to something.

Laura Fisher: 33:21

All right. Bye. Bye. Thanks for joining us this week on Small Business Insights, make sure you visit our website at Fisher podcast.com where you can follow the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform, so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating and review on iTunes or simply share it with a friend that would help us out to make sure you tune in next week for our next episode. Until then, you better be up to something