Episode 50 Books, Blogs and Pods the Who, the What and the Why

Jack Hubbard  00:01

I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from Ledger's to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great here on Jack Rants With Modern Bankers. 

Jack Hubbard  00:47

Happy Thursday everybody happy holidays, Merry Christmas we won't be on next week but we are here live today, hi Brynne.

Brynne Tillman

Hi, Jack. I’m excited about our last, Jack Rants with Brynne of 2023.

Jack Hubbard  01:02

Yeah you know it's been a lot of fun and we've got some great things on tap for 2024 but I want to jump into this because the title of this program today is Books, Blogs and Pods: The who, the what, and the why. So Brynne and I are going to each kind of share with you some books and all the rest of it that are really important to us that have really helped us in our career. Brynne do you want to start with the first book?

Brynne Tillman 1:31

My first book or yours? ah so okay oh I have my four here I'm gonna start with the one that set it all off for me which is Bob Berg's Endless Referrals now this it was written before I mean he this is kind of what put him on the circuit uh you know he's had the Go-giver and the entire go-giver series after after this but this is the book that really did it for me. And there's a few things in here but ultimately it's about building Rapport and relationships and bringing value and earning referrals. This is not just about asking for referrals, it's about actually earning them and making sure that you surround yourself with all of the right folks. So this is an oldie but a goodie and I think it's absolutely incredible um and it really the goal of this is to help you generate continuous sales opportunities by leveraging your relationships.

Jack Hubbard 02:46

 Well that's great because that's a Timeless book and my first one I think is going to be timeless too and it's already a classic. This is Elizabeth Cottrel’s Heart Spoken. I really like this book it's one of my favorites for 2014 and one of the reasons is because it's so practical she has a tremendous approach to note writing and I think it's a lost art I really do and one of the neat things about this is she actually does what she says uh and she writes notes and she's written me a couple of them and this is a this is absolutely terrific book I I like it because it's practical and it gives you a lot of good ideas is not just for no take not sending for somebody to you know you congratulate or if there's a tragedy or something like that but just regular old I was thinking of you kind of notes and I think it's a lost art and I really believe that it's a book that should be on your shelf.

Brynne Tillman 03:51

I love it. Okay well on your shelf and on your lap while you're reading it too.

Jack Hubbard 03:55

That's no doubt. There's no doubt. Go ahead what's number two on your list?

Brynne Tillman 3:59

All right number two in my list kind of is a newer book that really kind of I guess aligns very well with the first one which is my friend Joanne Black wrote No More Cold Calling now I know there are lots of the sales trainers out in the world that are saying cold calling works and I'm not saying it doesn't work I hate it. I love the phone, I love the conversation but for me I have always felt like it was an enormous amount of wasted time and energy where I could be doing more effective things like referrals. Where I I get to hello faster and at a higher level of credibility.

So I am not saying that if cold calling is working for you and you love it keep doing it if you are like me where I am relationship driven this is an incredible book so it actually will teach you I think it's a referral selling process that is incredible it's about differentiating yourself from your competitors making a real lasting Impression setting a hook making sure you're using the right tools and techniques and increasing your Salesforce productivity, your sales teams productivity absolutely hands down a must read book and since you opened your book I'm going to open mine I think oh maybe I don't I can't I should have had it open to the right spot but I have a lovely note from her that says that she loves me so that makes that book that much more powerful for me.

Jack Hubbard 5:52

Awesome! I've got a second book and then I want to talk about there you go, there you go I've got a second book and then I want to talk about our Public Workshop that's coming up too  you know this is a this 2023 has been a fascinating year in some ways very very good in some ways not so good and that's typical of every year but a year of thinking differently came to me. This lady Allison Netzer has written a couple of best-selling books. This is her most recent one Allison is the chief marketing officer at Nymbus which does a lot of good work in the IT  and marketing space for banks and Credit Unions.

The reason I like this book is because it is so different it is the most different book I've ever read There are 52 chapters in this one for every week of last year as she was writing this book and into this year the other thing I really like about this is that every chapter starts with a a quote from another book so not only do you get some really good ideas from Allison but you get 52 additional books that you might want to read.

The other thing I like about this is it's very actionable. At the end of every chapter Allison does some activities that you should be doing around a particular subject and an action plan and I've had Allison on my show Jack Rants with Modern Bankers. She's a tremendous marketing mind and it's something that you probably ought to pick up a year of thinking differently by Allison.

So before we go on to the next book I wanted to talk a little bit about something that's going to happen starting January 16th and I am so thrilled with the response to this. People signing up like crazy for the LinkedIn Sales Training that we're going to do. It's a six-week program and Brynne, talk a little bit about some of the subjects we're going to cover from January 16th on through into February.

Brynne Tillman 8:01

Oh yeah we are going to cover the essentials on how to leverage LinkedIn for bankers and ultimately it's a sales training class with LinkedIn as the Hub. We're going to talk about how to position yourself to be seen as the subject matter expert, the industry expert, and the go-to banker for your network. We're going to update your profile so that it's resource driven we're going to learn how to share content in a way that engages our prospects to help us start trust-based conversations without being salesy. 

We're going to talk about taking inventory of our current Network who are we connected to that we're ignoring what past clients current clients referral Partners who's in our Network centers of influence that we should be having conversations with because as Bankers we are out prospecting networking net new all the time but we're ignoring our existing connections and one of the greatest things we had a banker identifying one of our live classes pre pandemic when they were doing this exercise of taking inventory they saw that an old client was at a new company I think it was a CFO I can't remember exactly but a CFO had moved to a new company and they reached out in class and got an appointment now this is someone that that Banker had worked with for years at another company didn't know that the CFO made a switch but by taking inventory these are the kinds of things that we start to identify that help us start trust-based conversations even with people we already know but have been ignoring we're also going to talk about that warm Market social proximity. 

How are we connected how does our Network connect up to our prospects and our ideal accounts and how do we leverage that pathway so that we start trust-based is there a theme Here trust-based conversations without being salesy there also our participants are going to have a one on a one to group session with you jack where Beyond even LinkedIn you can ask Jack any of your sales questions and he is there to support and then we're going to do what we call A Day in the Life which means that we are going to help you with your checklist of when I wake up what do I do on LinkedIn that is effective and productive and then I'm not spinning my wheels going down you know getting suck down a rabbit hole right so so that's our program and it's only $197 it's crazy I don't know what we were thinking.

Jack Hubbard 10:53

Yeah it's it's wonderful and themodernbanker.com/linkedInsalestraining get you more information get you to sign up uh we've had two banks that are bringing more than 10

people to to the program the other neat thing is it's going to be recorded So if you do attend you're going to have the opportunity to have this for one full year and speaking of coaching you're going to have 90 days worth of coaching starting January 16th with Brynne Tilman one of the 16 sales influencers for LinkedIn for 2023. Brynne knows so much about what's going on in LinkedIn the all the new stuff and as a bonus week we're going to do something around sales Navigator and if you use it terrific It's a Wonderful system if you don't you're thinking about it here are some ideas to kind of think about so starts January 16th if you're interested please let me know, message me, message Brynne and we're happy to provide you more information.

Well let's move on with our books. You've got another one. Go!

Brynne Tillman 12:02

I have two more. I have two more physically with me. This talking about oldie but goodie, 

I would say probably in 2006 or seven my friend Ivon gave me this book and it's called The Little Black Book of Connections written by Jeffrey Gitomer  who is most famous for the Little Red Book of sales this one however is my favorite and I learned a few things from this book that gave me incredible “aha moments” but the number one thing I learned from this book which 

and kind of bridges into LinkedIn today this was written prior to LinkedIn uh is it's not about who you know it's about who knows you.

So yes, we have our relationships but one of the things um and actually I had uh Jeb Blount just

posted this because I had an interview with him one of the things that we talk about when it comes to networking right is it's about bringing value it's about ultimately creating you're earning the right to build that relationship but before I had that interview I was at a conference in Orlando where people came up and hugged me that I didn't know and at first it's a little

alarming like hi did I forget you did we date in high school? Like what? And they're like but because I have video and we do things like this and I've got content out there for years and

years they'd say I have been watching your videos for years I have been following your content for years I love you I didn't even know their name. They were lurkers; they didn't even engage with the content, they just consumed it.

So this book is right this book and that's I know it's about books but it comes back to the major lesson is when you can influence and inspire people at scale you create this beginning of… they have a relationship with me or at least they think they do right? But as a banker if you have people that feel like they have a relationship with you when they need banking you're the only one they're going to so I'll repeat the lesson from that book that just hits me it's not who you know it's who knows you.

Jack Hubbard 14:46

That's very true, very true. I think we're both gonna comment on this next book because we've both interviewed this gentleman, Anthony Iannarino has written five best selling sales books

this is not one of them. It is the most unique book that I have read from Anthony Iannarino. It's called Negativity Fast. I just finished interviewing him for a program that's going to be on in January for Jack Rants with Modern Bankers. I love this book because it talks about positivity it talks about how can you eliminate the negativity in your life and there's some very practical ideas the other thing that's really interesting about this book the Negativity Fast is that Anthony really pours himself into this book and what I mean by that is he reveals a lot of personal things that have happened to him in his life. Things around his children, he shares a lot about his wife

and her approach to helping him be less negative. It's an outstanding book, Brynne,  and you've interviewed Anthony as well. I know you finished this book, it's terrific.

Brynne Tillman 15:54 

Oh absolutely and actually I'm rereading pieces of it because there are certain certain things that really resonate but I I'm going to just kind of do the overarching three points which at first and first I actually had a conversation with Anthony when I was in Las Vegas for sales 3.0 about the book before the book came out. So it was maybe six weeks before the book came out and he said it's about three things it's about gratitude, empathy and lying to yourself  and I went oh this is ridiculous we live in a world of authenticity of honesty of transparency I am never gonna learn from a book that tells me to lie to myself and then I got it so I'm just going to tell you the quick story around this and why I think everyone that has any negative thoughts that's bringing them down this will change.

So I believe it was Anthony's brother-in-law who had road rage and everywhere he went when someone cut him off that person owned him even though he didn't know who he was because for the next three hours or however long it was his blood was boiling he was angry and it came out in his he get to work and it was clear he was bringing that anger from the guy that cut him off right we all know this story and he decided to reframe I'm shortening this but to reframe his thinking and so he would start to lie to himself guy would cut him off and he'd make up a story oh his wife is in labor and he's got to get to the hospital or his kid just fell in the playground and he's gotta go whatever.

So all of a sudden he felt like a mensch like a good guy letting people go in front of him to get to wherever they need to go because it must be really important and his anger went away and to me I went oh my gosh so he told himself he would tell himself a story now he lets people in all the time and so I went I get that. It's really about reframing, lie to yourself as an extreme kind of get your attention but it really is reframing the negative thoughts to be positive and we can control that when we get angry at all these other things or we have negative thoughts and we're that about out in the world we can't control that but we can

control our response and to me I think this is a life-changing book for people that are really stuck in the negative.

Jack Hubbard 18:55

I agree. And the other thing you talked about was gratitude he talks about the gratitude Journal and how important that is and how he writes something every evening he used to do it in the morning uh does it now every evening to talk about what's he grateful for for a particular day I think it really does, it really does help. You mentioned authenticity and I want to talk about the next book because Larry Lavine is both of our friends. So Larry I met, he was doing his Selling From The Heart podcast and I thought wow this is unbelievable.

Now Larry Lavine writes something every week on LinkedIn you can also get every morning thought from Larry if you go to his website I love Selling From The Heart because it talks about authenticity it talks about not being an empty suit. It is a sales book but it's also a life book, Brynne. This is one of my favorite books of the past couple of years.

Brynne Tillman 19:55

Really? That’s  interesting. All right well that's awesome I have his book sitting somewhere. My next book actually is found well, yeah I guess the foundation of our program and now I forget how many years ago but probably I should know this date off the top of my head but back when I started maybe 08,09. I won't get into the whole story about Aramark but I was teaching LinkedIn for free as a loss leader to get people in and someone from Aramark, Nicole Bradley posted somewhere that we just took this program and I'll tell you what the program is in a minute and then they said the next thing we need to when they said, “Now what?” They said go take some LinkedIn training. Pretty Progressive back then so she put out in the world looking for a LinkedIn trainer for Aramark and I responded and she responded very nicely, “You are a one woman band we are Aramark that's not going to work.” 

So I looked at who were our shared connections who was I connected to that Nicole knew and it happened to be a Rutgers Professor that I did a one one class every semester for when I reached out to Professor Richardson I said you know how do you know Nicole she was my student the professor who I doing these favors for took Nicole to lunch and Saidi not going to tell you to hire but I'm gonna say you need to meet with her.

So because of that warm relationship I walked into Aramark and they handed me this book The Challenge for sale and they said we just invested empty amounts of money and when we said to you know when we said to Bren Adamson and Matthew Dixon now what they said get some LinkedIn training. So they liked my style and they hired me. They  handed the book and said “Go build us a class,” they said “okay what's your budget?” it was not a huge budget but it wasn't a huge budget and I said if I'm gonna invest my time to build this class I want to make sure I can keep it and they said “Yeah, absolutely no problem.”  now it has changed significantly over the years but this is when I really started the concept of lead to your solution not with it and the foundation of bring insights to the table and earn the right so thank you very much to my dear friends that wrote The Challenger Sale and I love The Challenger Customer so that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Jack Hubbard 22:54

Well it's good and the last book that I have and then we can start getting into blogs and such if you have others books that's great. You were instrumental in introducing me to these folks, Colin

Cogins, Garrett Brown this is my book of the year without hands down it's called The Unsold Mindset every page has something that is all about what Bankers should be how how Bankers should be selling it there is a lot of practical stories they teach entrepreneurial entrepreneurialism at USC uh their classes are continually full they're speaking all around the world now and I told them recently I said okay what are you gonna do for an encore because they've got to write another book if you have one book under your tree this year if you have one book as a team a bank team or a bank president you say I gotta get people to read a book this is the book the unsold mindset I had them on my show Jack Rants with Modern Bankers but you introduced me to them Brynne, these guys are great.

Brynne Tillman 24:01

So I was blown away by this book and you know I think and I don't want to…my memory but I think I found them because of a post or the title to a post was what if the greatest sales people on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are? That got my attention and really Colin and Garrett really dive into what truly makes a great salesperson. What makes good sellers

great like what is the mindset, what is the attitude and yeah it it is very different and revolutionary and for us is a perfect Bridge from that traditional sales training mindset to how do we incorporate that into the digital sales mindset and I think they really capture that beautifully when you know and I believe this was research right and the people they researched they were shocked they found out things they did not expect so yeah I really absolutely agree with you this is my book of the year I think.

Jack Hubbard 25:27

And if you are a bank and you're have a some kind of a big sales rally early in 2024 if you're a trade Association and you're looking for just outstanding speakers Colin and Garrett are the

real deal and they're so funny together they're just they're just awesome um any other books for you Brynne?

Brynne Tillman 25:49

Those were my books I've got some podcasts I mean I'm sure I have a ton more books but for today I think, I’ve gone through my my list but let's start with the podcast that is every Saturday

morning at 8: 00 am Eastern that runs uh Meredith Ellie Powell and Mark Hunter sales logic what I love so I you know I'm gonna say I rarely listen to the podcast because I'm always live on the Saturday morning but if you can't make it live this is absolutely… I think I do subscribe to it because I see come through I'm like oh I participated in that one but one of the things I love about it is they do encourage as we do here participation from the audience so it I learn and I  meet people and I have I have a new network of incredible people that I met just in the comments of sales logic but there are few things they always have a book recommendation they always have a really great topic but then they have this um rapid fire at the end I should know but I think it's 10 things on every single episode and there's always a couple of mic drops in there 

Jack Hubbard 27:09

Yeah yeah all all good. 7 o'clock Central Time, 8 o'clock Eastern time, every Saturday and they've done these from the road they do them in their homes, their offices and they're always really really great um for me one of my favorite podcasts is the one that James Robert Lay does. I think he's had 360 episodes it's one of the top 5% podcast views around the world the digital banking podcast is truly outstanding he has a lot of great guests tremendous ideas for Bank

marketers and I'll jump on to the next one and then you go ahead speaking of Bank marketers John Oxford from Renaissance Bank the chief marketing officer there written a bestseller selling book and he also has with Josh Maus a podcast and it's called the marketing money podcast they've done 160 episodes and it's always fun it's always practical these two guys joke back and forth and it's there's a lot of great nuggets in it you got another podcast?

Brynne Tillman 28:17

Sales Gravy Podcast hands down now if you go there now if you're live I think mine might be the one on the top and I been on the podcast this think this is my third time but that's not why I love it why I love it is because it is so the the questions that Jeb asks Jeb Blount asks are so practical and so when I listen to any of his interviews I am always walking away with new ideas fresh perspectives I think it's amazing um there's a few others that I love I do should I hit it back to you or go ahead you go you're rocking so as far as there's a soupy sales, which is really really fun fun it's not on purp it's not but there's some little tips that come out of it it's funny like soupy sales if you know soupy sales from back in the 50s  so it's really fun Revenue driving sales hacks sales successes also really good from the Sales Maven really good that's a fun one and I'm just blocking I'm going to come up with it in a moment.

The Sales Evangel evangelist evangelist I always do that with Donald Kelly oh so good love him love him  Sales Leadership podcast is really good I listen to a little of Sales BabbleI've just been dabbling in Sales Babble the other one Scott Ingram has sales success stories and it's a it really does talk about habits and routines and certain things that we can really Implement right away lots of great stuff the advanced selling podcast I mean there's a lot that are out there that is an absolute must I know I'm going to go I'm just going to go through my list these are the ones I subscribe to sales game changers with Fred Diamond is also phenomenal.I love it.

Mark Hunter actually has his own outside of Sales Logic he has the sales Hunter podcast which I sneak in and enjoy as well so those are just a few I could if you grabbed my phone you'd probably see 10 more.

Jack Hubbard 31:07

Well I'll add to it at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning listen to Meredith and Mark and then I quickly jump over on SE at 7:30 to Larry Lavine and Daryl Amy's podcast which is selling from the heart podcast and they always have a phenomenal guest and it's and Larry knows this I steal a lot of his guests because that's how I met Elizabeth Cottrel and and certainly several others so it's a it's a really outstanding podcast and it's perfect for banking because it's all about authenticity um I would also say Jack Rants with Modern Bankers is something that we've started in 2023 we've had some phenomenal guests next week we've got Bill Fink a two-parter Bill as EVP of of TD Bank we've got Anthony Iannarino, Ned Miller, Joanne Black is going to be on Chris Nichols so we've got a lot of good ones but I want to end the the the program and talk about yours Social Sales Link has a great podcast in fact I just listened to yours this morning you weren't there, Gunner Hood was there and you talked about AI talk about your podcast, Brynne.

Jack Hubbard 32:16

So I I'm sort of like well Making Sales Social is one I think it's three years old now and it really is talking with sales professionals and talking about how do you make sales social right but it's  been it's really sales combining with the digital world so love that we are in the top five% of all podcasts which is really exciting I think and then I have a new one that I've launched with Stan called Sales Navigator with Stan and Brynne and we just talk about sales Navigator real some deep dives there so you know I just love this and I think being able to bring value at scale through podcasts with you Jack Rants with Brynne which is part of the Jack Rants Series and the it just brings me joy to be able to provide insights that can help other people. 

Jack Hubbard 33:16

Well it's  really true and one of the things that Bankers have requested of me is you know I'd like to get a little farther out so I can see some of the subjects that you're going to cover and so we're starting something new in 2024 whereas every month we'll have a month worth of topics for Jack rants with Brin we'll be inviting people but you're welcome to join us and we just put that out there today and we've already had a lot of people jump on and and want to join certain topics whether it's sales Navigator or whatever the case might be.

So, Brynne, what a great way to end the year and I know you've got a couple of final comments.

Brynne Tillman  33:57

Wait before we do that we are gonna give some blogs.

Jack Hubbard 34:03

Oh go with the blogs oh yeah sure.

Brynne Tillman  33:57

I'm not going to go deep into them. I have my little list just because we promised the audience. gong.io some great content HubSpot marketing and sales, absolutely amazing, LinkedIn Sales Solutions has a Blog that's really good take a look at that sales gravy podcast and blog the

wait did I have three more I think I have no more cold calling which is Joanne Black so we're bringing it back to that and let me that might be, so Jill Conrath I don't know if she still has a lot going on on her stuff but it's really Evergreen so she's got some incredible stuff from the past she may occasionally be posting but go back to her stuff from years ago it's worth revisiting and did I say Hines Marketing that was the other one.

Jack Hubbard 35:03

Okay that's great, that's terrific and I would just add the Sales blog by Anthony Iannarino. Anthony's on December 28th Anthony’s blog is 14 years old he's written every week except for two when he was out and if you want to know where he was you can go to Jack rants with modern Bankers uh when you when you see the interview and he'll tell you where he was but it's an outstanding very thoughtful sales blog as well I also got a I gotta jump in for one other podcast it's Ned talks Ned Miller is a very very good friend and Ned has a lot of Bankers on as guests and he really talks a lot about practical ideas in bank to business selling so there you go.

Brynne, that's awesome so also the last one I might mention this is the one I was looking for Victor Antonio's sales influence blog another good one and you'll never be able to do all of this read all of these experience all of these but one of the reasons we wanted to do this is because A you requested it and that's driven by the audience and B if you can pick up one thing from a few ideas whether it's a couple of pages in a book or a blog or a podcast that will help make your 2024 much more successful, not only for you but for your clients.

Love it! Alright, well this is our last live together for 2023. I think we ended with a really good 

Episode that could bring some good value to folks and if you’re listening live before Christmas you have a big list, I think Amazon can deliver it within the next day or two. 

Outro:
Thanks for joining us for Jack Rants with Brynne brought to you by our good friends at Vertical IQ and RelPro. We're live on LinkedIn every Thursday at noon Eastern time helping bankers turn connections into conversations. Don't miss an episode, visit themodernbanker.com/tmbpodcast. Leave us a review if you would. You can also listen to this program and the new Jack Rants with Modern Bankers on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and I Heart Radio. We're on YouTube as well. Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/@TheModernBanker. Finally, don't forget, make today and every day a great client day!