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The Attention Shift: From Empty Content to Emotional Impact | Stories With Traction Podcast

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SHOW NOTES:

In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with Joshua B. Lee, Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Standout Authority, to unpack what it truly means to be human in the age of AI. Joshua shares his powerful journey from burnout and breakdown to building a business that thrives on authenticity. He challenges the noise of algorithm-chasing content and reminds us why connection always beats clicks.

In addition, they talk about:

โœ… The importance of humanizing your brand
โœ… What most people get wrong about “thought leadership”
โœ… How to use LinkedIn as a conversation platform, not a content dumping ground
…and much more!

๐Ÿ‘ค BIOS:

Joshua B. Lee (aka the “Dopamine Dealer of LinkedIn”) has over two decades of experience in digital marketing. He has built 16 businesses, managed nearly a billion dollars in ad spend, and has driven over 35 trillion online impressions. 

Matt Zaun is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who shows business leaders how to inspire action and drive results through the power of strategic storytelling. With a track record of catalyzing significant sales growth for over 300 organizations, Matt’s approach blends performance, persuasion, and purpose.

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Matt, I'm excited, my friend. Thank you so much. And you said it right out the gate, right? Like, it's so funny.

So many people are like, well, like, dopamine. Like, for some reason, dopamine is a very difficult word to be able to say when I'm getting interviewed, and you crushed it, my friend.

So thank you.

 

Matt Zaun

Thanks. Well, our world, the attention economy, I feel like it thrives off of dopamine. I feel like today, based on all the amazing visuals we can have, there's a dopamine increase in our brains, right?

That's why people want to scroll. That's why people want to consume. So I want to start there. want to dive into that.

And I want to dive right in to the AI piece, because I feel like there is so much happening right now with social media, particularly as it pertains to AI slop.

I feel like a lot of people are putting out

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Just subpar content pieces.

 

Matt Zaun 

So what are your thoughts on that? And where do you see that going in the months and years ahead?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Matt, I love it, man. I think this is the biggest thing, right? Like we've been all consumed, you know, for 20 years.

I've been in this space of online advertising, digital marketing aspects. And I learned really quickly that the human algorithm, the one that doesn't change or just evolve slowly over time, we've been conditioned to like, comment, share, post, like, comment, share, post.

That's what we've been conditioned to be able to do. I mean, hell, one of my first clients was MySpace, right?

So it gives everyone a little age on how long I've been doing this. And, you know, we talk about dopamine because dopamine, I think what keeps us in that cycle is it's not directed.

Like dopamine without intention is insanity. And that's what we are actually seeing in today's world, especially more so even with AI.

Dopamine with intention can create magic. It creates flow state. allows people to be able to connect deeper. And I think that's the big thing that social media is using incorrectly, where everyone listening, if you actually pay attention, especially where we're going with AI, you can actually create your own narrative rather than it being creative for you.

And I think with AI, look, we're going to have more content, right? Like everything's going out there. We live in a world, Matt.

Content's not king anymore, right? Like we have so much content. We've all been there on a Friday night, you know, Netflix and chill.

And I mean, I'll tell you, man, if my wife always tells me, she's like, if you can't pick a show in two more seconds, we spend 15 more minutes looking for a show, I'm going to kill you.

And that's what it is, right? There's too much. We spend more time looking for a show. And I think that's the biggest thing with AI right now is people are like, well, I can just create as much AI as possible.

You know, I can create 500,000 pieces of content. Well, how about we do quality content? It's not about how much.

How much can you actually create with intention? And I think that's where we're going to see a huge separation.

Because in a world of AI, the human beings behind it and actually understanding who you are, what you stand for, and your message are more important than ever.

Because as human beings, we have more power than ever because of AI, and AI is just a tool.

 

Matt Zaun 

So you mentioned quality. So how would you define quality content?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

To me, look, as human beings, we make decisions based on some degree of love or hate. We do not make decisions being indifferent.

I think that's the biggest problem we live in this world. mean, look, you come from a world of the government world and being able to be in that space.

And so many people are so scared to be polarizing in a way that could actually affect someone and have them look at them negatively.

But I'm going to tell you, it's not about being polarizing in a negative fashion. It's about being polarizing in a way that actually makes someone love you or hate you because that's how we make decisions.

To some degree, it's based on some degree of love or hate. Most people put out content that's just like...

Well, cool, I'm going to put out content, but it won't affect anyone. Well, now you're just being able to go in, and I think this is where quality content is.

It's polarizing enough in a good way that creates an emotion within the person that's not only within yourself first, but within the reader or the watcher, as we live in a video world right now, that evokes an emotion, right?

And so we have to be able to do that. Are you going to push them to comment? Are you going to push them to engage rather than just consume?

And I think that's the big thing right now is the difference. Are they consuming or are they actually creating?

Look, here's, I'll pull it back and I'll stop at this, Matt, because I think it's really important. We've all heard, you know, oh, I want to be a thought leader, right?

We've heard of influencers. And so I think the biggest problem is I don't want to be a thought leader or an influencer.

A thought leader is someone that gives you a lot to think about, right? Ooh, wow, that's profound. Or an influencer, honestly, in this world, I look at an influencer.

There's someone that's half-naked dancing on TikTok or Instagram trying to sell me some sunglasses they don't really care about.

What I want, and I want everyone listening, is to be a thought leader with influence. That is what we have to be able to strive for.

Are you putting content out that's profound enough that's going to push someone to take action? And so that's where I look at that's quality content.

 

Matt Zaun 

So I appreciate you mentioning that. Now, mentioned this one word that I'm sure there's someone listening that as soon as you said it, their immediate reaction was, ooh, you mentioned polarizing.

So are you suggesting companies pick sides and get into certain topics that might cause negative reactions in certain people?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

It's not about the negative reaction, right? We all know in this world right now there's a lot of people that are polarizing in a negative way that are putting other people down.

I am not telling anyone to be able to do that. I want you to be polarizing enough to say, hey, this is who I am.

This is my audience. This is my tribe. And I want you to be. Think about, well, I mean, we'll just say now it's Tim Cook, but, you know, Apple, they are polarizing enough that they have a tribe of human beings that even if Apple doesn't ever, never again updates the iPhone, you know, people are still going to line up to buy that thing every single year because they've created a tribe because their audience is polarizing enough that they love just the being of that company.

And so that's what I'm talking about being polarizing is are you sharing enough about you or I'm trying to remember his name right now.

just went blank. The last president of T-Mobile, like he came up and he's like, look, I am the human being behind the company, right?

This is who I am. This is what I do. And like people, he brought T-Mobile out of the potential of being able to close down.

And he was able to be say, look, this is who I am. That's the world we live in. We live in a post-world COVID where people now, especially in the political space.

They are going to, they want to be able to know the people behind the brand. And so that's what I'm talking about polarizing is, are you a dad?

Are you not a dad? Are you, do you like rock climbing? Do you like traveling? Are you a hunter?

Right? Like there's some people that are like, I'm not a hunter. I'm not going to go into that. So like, I'm not trying to say like, Hey, I hate these types of people or whatever it might be, because that's horrible in this world.

I want people to think about, Hey, this is who I am. This is what I, this is what I do.

I'm like, man, I get that person. Right.

 

Matt Zaun 

I love that. And one of the things that I immediately thought of when you were talking is a lot of times companies will talk about a funnel, right?

A sales funnel. The challenge I've always seen with this though, is when you have a funnel, water goes through the entire funnel, where I almost feel like it's better to create a filtering system to filter things out.

You mentioned, you know, being a dad, right? So if someone's putting out a lot of content about them being a father, they're going to filter out people that aren't dads.

So I think that's interesting, adding that positive element of polarization. Be more of a filter than a funnel.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

I love that perspective.

 

Matt Zaun 

I want to backtrack quick because I want people to get a sense of a little bit more about you, your story, how you got to where you are.

So I want to talk about teenage Joshua. So if you could take us back to a 13-year-old Joshua, what did you want to be?

What did you want to do? Were you blown away with content on television, cartoons? What are your thoughts regarding content as a 13-year-old?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Thank you for at least saying the television or cartoons because everyone, if Matt had said, what do you think about social media?

There wasn't, I'm what they call a Xenio, right? The fun age between 1978 and 82, we were born analog, raised analog, and then grew up digital.

So it's such an interesting space. But yeah, mean, dude, I probably wanted to be a superhero to some extent.

Like, I'm a huge Super Marvel, you know, DC fan being able to go through the antihero. Deadpool is like one of my, I love that, of being able to do whatever it takes for good, right, to be able to create positive impact.

And sometimes people aren't going to like what you're doing to be able to accomplish those goals. And so, yeah, I had that, but I also, I think I had a skewed view of reality.

I grew up in upper middle class, but at the same time, you I played football. I mean, I, look, let's go back into an old movie, Varsity Blues.

Like, you want to talk about playing Texas football? I mean, when you played varsity football going into high school and stuff like that, I mean, these are the things, like, it's amazing what they would do for you to make sure that you play, right?

You could get away with anything. But I also was the jock, but also the quote-unquote nerd on the other side where I did really well in school.

So my brain was a little bit different. I was still trying to understand how it worked because back then I was one of those, I still am, I just.

Got a better filter of how to be able to take information in. I could walk into a room and tell you every person in the room what they were, how many people, how many lights, all that kind of information.

It was an overload of information. And because of I always felt outside looking in. I could be friends with everyone, but I fit in nowhere.

I don't think I fit in until I actually realized what entrepreneurs were and that type of group that were striving to be different and to be able to create change.

I sold candy out of my locker, right? I mean, I was that kid that there was always a way to monetize.

mean, even younger than 13, my mom remembers me going to summer school, and she was like, I don't know why you're going to summer school.

You don't need to, but I realized there was an opportunity to, I knew how to count cards so I could play cards and get some money.

So money was a driver at an early age, and not until I was much later in life, I realized I was following the wrong driver.

This is what our parents taught us, which was money is the driver. Now, money should be the byproduct of what you do, not the driver.

And I think that's where my life shifted from that 13-year-old Josh that probably until 32, I was still that 13-year-old Josh driven by money and getting it together.

Now, I gave it back. I thought I did that, but it was still my main driver. And it led me to a lot of financial success, but not personal success.

And not until I shifted that did I actually end up to where I am today.

 

Matt Zaun 

So you mentioned 13-year-old Joshua kind of went to the 32-year mark. Was there like an aha moment where you paused and said money isn't the answer, money shouldn't be the end-all be-all?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

I mean, I'll be honest, dude. It was tough. Not until I was really blessed. I found a group of entrepreneurs.

They were called Maverick 1000 by a good friend of mine, Yannick Silver. And they invited me to an excursion to Necker Island to be able to spend a week.

think. Bye. Week with Richard Branson. And honestly, that was amazing. I've done that a couple times in my life to be able to go up there since then.

But it really helped me give me perspective because prior to that, building my companies, like I had a lot of my amazing friends I grew up with, but they were there because I made a lot of money.

They didn't want to hear about the product. They wanted to high five me on the successes because they could share in them.

But they didn't, you if you talked about it too much, was bragging, right? Like you couldn't be, or they didn't want to know about the hardships that went along with it.

And not until I went to that island and met other entrepreneurs like me that could make money and do good on this world, like Richard Branson has done, and other people, did I understand that there was a different space.

And that's where I started having a shift. And I started really looking at my own life because, as I mentioned, successfully, I was deemed success based on monetary.

That's what most people look in this world as, oh, you're successful because you make a lot of money. I wasn't, I though, man.

I was, I remember, I just. Two kids, my wife, and I wasn't happy. I mean, I remember going in my office, and I grew up where, with my kids, when they were born, I wanted to have my office doors open.

No matter what I said, I should be able to say it in front of my kids. If I can't say it in front of my kids, I shouldn't say it at all.

And I remember when those office doors shut, and I remember spending eight hours a day in my office. I was running 10 different companies, six, seven, well, seven, eight, and nine-figure businesses, right?

But I was staring at the wall, and I remember contemplating, like, is the money I'm going to leave for my kids more important than me?

Because I was 40 pounds overweight, my friends were monetary, you know, they were there, and I had no vision about where I was going.

just knew where I was at, right? This whole work-life balance mentality that we're all taught to live. And I was really blessed that a good friend of mine gave me permission to take my life back and give my former hers.

And at 36, I actually walked away from everything. That was the real shift for me. Right? My lawyers go, this is going to take three years to be able to go through.

And I said, I value my time over money. I can always make more money. I can't make more time.

And so that's where it kind of shifted was, okay, I walked away at 36, moved back with my parents, a little bit under $1,000 in my name to save time with my kids.

And I restarted. And to be honest, like the first right out of the gatehouse, Matt, I had the pendulum swung, my friend.

And like I had the man bun, the mala beads, like I was going to be a coach. I was going to be the guru.

I wrote my book, Balance is , you know, how to be able to actually go through and live a more integrated life, all the things that I was too scared to share about before.

And I mean, honestly, I realized really quickly, I didn't want to be a coach.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. Okay. So 36, you transition more to focusing on legacy is what I hear you say.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Is that correct? Yeah, 100%. It was like, how can I actually, I tried to change this world on my own.

Damn near killed myself doing it. I realized that if I wanted to change this world, not only for myself, for my kids, and for everyone's kids, I had to do it with other human beings that were truly trying to add value to this world, not just monetize it.

 

Matt Zaun 

And I couldn't do that by myself. Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that. Another word that sticks out to me is humility.

You had the humility to do that at 36. I don't want talk about humility for a second because one of the things that was bewildering to me when I transitioned from politics into business is how humble some wildly successful business individuals are.

So I mentioned to you I do a lot of speaking engagements. I've spoken now in 25 U.S. states. My goal is to hit all 50, so I'm halfway to my goals.

I'm excited about that. But one of the things that's interesting is I've worked with a lot of high achievers, individuals that have amassed incredible amounts of success.

And what always fascinated me when I would get in these circles is how humble some of these individuals are.

I can't tell you how many times I've shaken someone's hand and someone will come up to me and say, do you know who that was?

I don't don't know. Owner of this multi-billion dollar corporation, and you wouldn't pick them out from a janitor or the CEO.

And I think one of the reasons is they are so humble. They're thirsty for knowledge. They are hungry for understanding how to improve themselves.

So I want to talk about humility a little bit, especially, you you at 36, you're focusing on legacy. You were humble enough to do this.

Where do you think some people miss the boat as it pertains to humility?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Here's the thing, right? And this is the hardest lesson it took me to learn. When I first went through my divorce, I was going out with my younger friends.

We were having fun, you know, whatever. I was like, I'm free, you know, but I was actually still pretending to be the person I was, right?

Because that was, you know, that's what everyone saw me as. I was Josh, the guy that if you needed to monetize anything online, I was your guy, right?

And that was the problem, right? And think this is the biggest problem for most people, but I was in a mini depression.

doing. I of attorney, is, I ํ•˜๋‚˜, You know, I wasn't acknowledging that. And it was my perception of everyone else's perception of me.

And that's what drives most of us in this world crazy. I'll say it again. My perception, our perception of someone else's perception is what drives us crazy because we have no clue.

Matt, I could sit here and think about anything that like, oh man, Matt, Matt thinks my hair is crazy.

You didn't tell me that, you know, but that's my, I'm perceiving that now I'm making an entire reality based on.

And our perception is our reality. So if we're perceiving what other people think about us, so not until I released that and I said, you know what?

And it's now we're in the age of social, like, you know, I'm in my thirties now, you know, and I went online.

I said, look, y'all, this is it. I want to be, I'm sick of this overproduced BS that all of us go through with this Facebook lifestyle or Instagram lifestyle that we only see the highlights of our life.

This is me. This is the real and raw because I'd rather be real and raw versus overproduced. because overproduced.

For produce, people are waiting for the pitch, right? And so I said, look, this is me. This is what's going on.

This is what happened. It is amazing. And then that day I called up 10 of my friends and I said, hey, this is what I'm going through.

They said, we know. We've watched you. We've been waiting for you. Next day, opportunity changed. Life shifted for me because I wasn't trying to pretend who I was.

I was out actually being who I was becoming. And I think that's the big thing, that we have to be, it's more like, even recently, right?

Like because of some of the stuff that I went through and my former, some of the issues that she had, she has some alcohol issues and stuff like that too.

My kids dealt with a lot of trauma. I talk about that now, right? I'm supporting my kids, you know?

I talk about the stuff that I go through that, you know, I'm very open about, you know, being able to address that.

But that being able to hold that responsibility, that it did not protect my kids as well as I should.

The more I talk. The more I go into it, the more people go, me too. Especially as men, sometimes we need the permission to be able to be vulnerable, to be able to be honest, to be able to be humility, be able to have humility, because we're taught not to do that, because that's cracks in our armor.

But actually, that makes us more human than ever before and allows us in our audience, which is usually a big gap, like, oh, Josh, 16 companies, to, oh, wow, Josh started his career working at Chili's as a server, me too.

Now we're connected, or Josh is a dad, or Josh is, it shortens that gap. And I think that's the big thing that we have to understand is it's not about B2B or B2C.

Like, those are just ways to be able to diversify ad spend. Everything is H2H, business and life, right? It's human to human, because every company is run by another human being.

Most marketers forget that. I think that's when you're able to make that shift, that's when you And truly connect with your audience, truly create change on this planet, not only for yourself, but for others.

 

Matt Zaun 

I love what you're saying because you're sharing story after story. So we're talking about breaking through the noise. We're talking, you mentioned that H to H, the human to human stories are a powerful way to connect us.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

And I want to talk a little bit about that because you mentioned love and hate earlier. Yeah.

 

Matt Zaun 

And it's amazing these emotional drivers, whether it's excitement or fear. So from a devastating perspective, because you mentioned depression, you mentioned a lot of darker stuff.

Have you used that as fuel for story telling and utilize those story pieces for engagement and to boost your business?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

I you talk about LinkedIn's my platform, right? And that was the thing, right? This is the craziest. How you could become from the man bun, mala bead wearing guy to where I am today.

And it was, I realized too, really quickly, like I wasn't that coach and I was forgetting my past to forge a new future.

And what we have to do is remember, you know, you. Who's our past to create our future? And that's when I combined the humanity of what I was trying to connect to the marketing that I used to be.

You go from monetization to humanization, right? And that's storytelling like you're talking about. Humanizing yourself online is what we're missing.

And you have to be able to tell these stories to be able to connect with your audience. Too many people, you know how times I get someone that goes, Oh, hey, Josh, can you help me, man?

I want to get in touch with seven-figure entrepreneurs or business owners. Because I'm going to help them double their income.

I'm like, cool. Well, it's X amount to be able to work with us. Well, I don't have that. Can I pay you after I make a couple sales?

I'm like, how can you help someone achieve something that you've never achieved? So you want to be able to connect with your audience.

I want storytelling because as human beings, we look for commonality. Oh, Josh went through that? Me too. I bet he better understands what I'm going through.

There's a thousand, hell, there's probably a million people out there trying to sell LinkedIn. And there's only one me that went through my stories that can connect with the audience the way that I do.

And that's what people have to understand of. It's really being able to, you know, where I've been, what I'm going through, and where I'm going, right?

Like, how can I talk about what I'm doing because of what I've went through? And I think we've taught, and especially in the corporate world, we're taught not to be able to show, talk about who we are.

And that's actually more important than ever is that person behind the brand because what makes you different? No one wants to buy a brand anymore.

They want to be able to work with the people that actually run that. It's about conversations because conversations create opportunity, right?

So you have to build conversations to create relationships. Relationships create that opportunity, and that's through storytelling.

 

Matt Zaun 

So I appreciate you bringing up LinkedIn again. I want to focus a little bit more on the LinkedIn piece.

A lot of leaders I work with, they understand the importance of having a profile, profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn being somewhat kind of sort of perhaps active-ish on LinkedIn, but there's no intentionality, there's no strategy.

So for anyone listening that they want to start somewhere, putting out content on LinkedIn, what do you recommend?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Here's the thing, man. I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think that half the people understand truly how important the profile is, right?

So before I even get into that, let's talk about the dynamics of LinkedIn, right? Like LinkedIn's been around for 21 years, right?

So they've been around longer than any other platform, but it's not the same platform it started off as. Microsoft actually owns LinkedIn.

They bought them for $24.6 billion cash, one of their largest cash purchases ever. think the platform's almost worth like 90 now, so like they've made their money time for their investing deeper.

Microsoft also owns another little platform. Well, not in the reality, they don't say it, but let's be honest, they own OpenAI.

I mean, we all saw it when these things kind of went down. They've got a pretty big control. They have invested almost $13 billion in that company.

So when you look at these two aspects, because of that, LinkedIn is one of the most indexed platforms on the planet for Google.

The Moz score and how they actually rank SEO is 100 out of 100. So when you talk about your profile, I guarantee you, if anyone right now searches up Matt's name, or even Matt searches it, even if he doesn't spend that much time, LinkedIn, his LinkedIn profile will be one of, if not the number one, one of the top three results.

I don't care anyone listening, search your name, I guarantee you, if you've got a LinkedIn profile, it's one of your top three.

So because of that, that's why your profile is so important. Now, let's go into AI. Because of that partnership with OpenAI, they're seeing the same thing.

We're like, well, we're moving into a world where generative AI is going to be a thing, right? Generative search, right?

You're not going to have listings anymore. You're actually going to get search results based off of what a, like a paragraph of what you're actually looking for.

Well, LinkedIn's. One of the most trusted platforms out there as well. So they are using LinkedIn and indexing it like crazy for not only OpenAI, a.k.a.

ChatGPT, and also Copilot, and people are sleeping on that platform as well too. And let me tell you, they are using it.

We are understanding how to be able to leverage not only your profile and your content to index for the future, not only the future of business, but the future of search, which will be generative AI.

And so that's why don't just build a profile. It's not your resume, y'all. Like resume, I mean, I know that we've got a lot of C-suite executives that are listening in right now.

Like how many times do you like to see a resume anymore? Like you want to understand someone's story. You probably go on someone's LinkedIn and if it's laid out as a resume, you know, Matt, you already talked about storytelling.

I want your resume to be your career journey, your career story, right? Tell me where you've been, where you're at, where you're going.

Spend your time indexing everything. I mentioned on there, I used to work at Chili's. One of my first jobs as a search.

Most people just go, oh, Josh, CEO of Stand Out Authority. You weren't born that way. Where did you start from, right?

These are all indexable points. Another feature, right? Fill every aspect of your profile. Tell your story. Like, outside of business, right?

What do you do? I'm the resident Spider-Man at Dell Children's Hospital here in Austin, Texas. I have that on my profile, right?

Even though I don't think I am, I try to be Spandex ready as much as possible. But, you know, for the kids, they don't care.

But these are those things that I want people to think about, Matt. Like, yes, before you put content out, you don't want what we call bounce rate.

Like, if someone looks at your content and goes to your profile and it's not fully complete, draws them in and evokes an emotion, they're gone.

You posted content for no reason. You sent a message out for no reason. That's the first place they're going to go look is your profile and go, is this person legit?

 

Matt Zaun 

That is a powerful perspective on the profile. I really appreciate you mentioning that. Now, what are your thoughts on this?

So when someone goes and looks at your profile, Profile, and they're scrolling through your LinkedIn feed. They could be, I'm just going to shoot you straight, a little bit intimidated, right?

You've got a ton of videos, you're walking around, you're shooting videos here, shooting videos there. Amazing content, incredibly thought-provoking content.

But I'm sure someone would see that and say, I can't do this. Or maybe that they can't do it, but that they're very intimidated to do it, especially as a C-suite executive.

So what are your thoughts on video content and getting someone a little bit more comfortable behind a camera?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Yeah. Look, I mean, here's the whole piece. I mean, if you're a C-suite executive or in that level, one, you shouldn't have to be thinking about that anyway, right?

Like that is not your superpower. Stay in your superpower. Like you should be working with someone to be able to help you accomplish these goals, right?

Because LinkedIn is one of the most important platforms out there right now. So, like, think about that first and foremost.

Second, it... More in front of the camera. I don't need you to have a professional camera. You all walk around with a phone, right?

Some of the most powerful content, and look, I've been very blessed to work with some amazing C-suite executives from AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, some of the biggest companies in the world to be able to help them connect with their audience because that's what you're trying to be able to do.

It's not about talking about exactly what your company is doing. You've got a company page for that. Talk about how you represent and how you show up for your company.

And some of that is just, like, I look at it this way, Max. You've got to be able to know your X, Y, Z statement.

I help X, your ideal client, so they can do have Y, right? That's what you do as a business so they can achieve, so they can have Z, right?

I help X to have Y so they can have Z, right? Like, do Y so they can have Z.

So, like, that is the whole aspect, right? Z is the outcome. It's the emotional trigger. As human beings, again, I said it, we make decisions emotionally.

No matter how— We always have some emotion tied to whatever statistic we're trying to base it off of. And so when you know that, you can kind of go in and be like, hey, you know, this is Josh, you know, and I build all my content based on the 10-20-70 method of content.

You ever heard of that method, Matt?

 

Matt Zaun 

I have not, no.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

All right, so I'll break it down real quick because I know we don't have, like, I can't sit here all day and give a master class on LinkedIn as much as I would love to.

But 10-20-70, the quickest form is 10% of your content needs to be personal. Human beings connect with other human beings, right?

It's not Facebook. I don't need to know when your kids are going to school for the first day. We all do it.

But I need to know you have them, right? So that's an important piece. I call this my door-to-the-couch mentality.

Instead of me knocking on your door, hey, I'm Josh. I'm here to be able to. I saw your neighbor down the street.

They just bought new windows. I think you should buy them, too. We all see this these days. To, Matt, you and I are hanging on the couch.

I'm like, dude, I just picked up this new mug, you know? And you're like. Oh, wow. Cool. Tell me more, right?

Commonality. That's that storytelling. That's that human being connection. That's that 10%. We've got to get to the couch. 20% of your content needs to be around your company, but not what you can do for somebody.

No one cares what you can do, what you have done for someone. What are the things that you've accomplished for your clients, for your audience, right?

These are storytelling. This is every C-suite executive, you know what your company has done for other people. understand these stories to be able to kind of tell it and being able to go through, right?

Like, and we only do this 20% of the time because we don't want to be that person in room.

We all know them. We all see them. We've all been to the events. We're like, oh, there's Josh. That dude never shuts up about LinkedIn.

Oh, avoid, avoid. Everyone's talking about their niche. Like, you know, like, don't be that person. That's everything on LinkedIn.

So we only talk about what we've done for people 20% of the time because 70%, I want you to add value.

I you to be an aggregator of value. Right. Like, yeah. Back in the day, right? It was a one website we all went to because it aggregated everything that we wanted to see on one site.

So that's what I want you to think about, right? Like, what do you know that you think is common knowledge that someone else might actually be able to gain from?

I'm not asking you to be able to build the book, and I don't want you to be able to do overproduced.

Until you're a household name, like Ariana Huffington, Tony Robbins, Gary Vee, whoever you follow on these different platforms, right?

They are household names. It used to not be. They are now. Most people know who these people are. If you are not, and I'm not saying anywhere close that I am, raw is better than overproduced.

I'd rather you take out your phone, just talk from the heart. There's going to be, you know, however you sound, that's how I want you to show up.

So that's really what it is, right? Like, just put it out there. Start with something. It's better than nothing.

 

Matt Zaun

I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that, and thank you so much for this conversation. I really appreciate it.

I learned a ton, but there's three things in particular that I'm going to take away from our conversation. The first is you saying dopamine without intention is insanity.

That is such a powerful line, something that everyone should think about. I can't tell you how many times I've whipped out my phone and I just aimlessly scroll.

That's dopamine without intentionality. I'm going to think more about that. I appreciate you mentioning that. The second point is you saying, I don't want to be a thought leader.

I don't want to be an influencer. I want to be a thought leader with influence. You don't want to just put out things that are thought-provoking or do crazy things, because you mentioned a lot of influencers are doing crazy things, but you actually want to be a thought leader with influence.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

That's that intentionality piece that you spoke about a lot today.

 

Matt Zaun 

And the third and final piece, which I thought was incredibly powerful, is you said our perception of someone else's perception of us drives us crazy.

That is something. I I need to spend a lot more time thinking about, and I'm actually going to make a commitment to you today that I'm going to think about that a lot more because there's a lot of times where that is the case, where I'm thinking, huh, what is this person actually thinking of me?

And more than likely, they're probably not even thinking that.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

So I think you saved a lot of people from unnecessary stress today. So thank you so much for this conversation, everything you shared.

 

Matt Zaun 

If someone wants to get more information on you, what you do, where's the best place they can go to get that information?

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Yeah, Matt. mean, look, everyone can come and check out our website, StandOutAuthority.com, but I'd rather be able to start a conversation with everyone, right?

Like find me on LinkedIn, Joshua B. Lee, and then honestly, don't just send me a blank request because that's what everyone does.

And I'm not playing Pokemon online. I'm not trying to collect them all. This is why your LinkedIn feed sucks.

This is why you get spammed all the time because you just hit accept. Send me a personal message and tell me why you love and listen to Matt in this podcast because not only do I get to understand who you are better, I get to understand.

Who Matt is and what he stands for better. And it allows me to not only have a better conversation with you, but also with Matt as well.

 

Matt Zaun 

Awesome. I'll make sure to include that in the show notes. People can just click and go from there.

 

Joshua B. Lee (Stand Out Authority)

Thanks again, Joshua. Really appreciate your time today. Thank you.

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