Humanizing Your Brand for Real Impact With Joshua B. Lee
- Quik! News Team
- 3 days ago
- 30 min read
Joshua B. Lee is the Founder and CEO of StandOut Authority, a company dedicated to humanizing marketing by helping entrepreneurs and executives grow their brands through the power of LinkedIn. Known as “The Dopamine Dealer of LinkedIn,” Joshua has managed nearly $1 billion in ad spend and driven over 35 trillion online impressions, building influence for high-powered professionals in a noisy digital world. With over 20 years of experience, he has founded 16 companies, worked with platforms such as MySpace and Google, and continues to transform how professionals create genuine human connections online.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:35] Joshua B. Lee discusses how they help people stand out in a noisy digital world
[4:13] Why Joshua doesn’t want leaders to be influencers but thought leaders with influence
[6:54] Humanizing your brand by sharing real first jobs and personal stories
[8:47] Content is not king anymore — quality is queen
[12:01] Choosing clients you enjoy working with over chasing money
[16:00] How to build rapport on LinkedIn through event connections
[18:54] The human algorithm versus social media hacks
[20:34] Leveraging gratitude and thank-you messages to spark real conversations
[23:49] Humanizing corporate giants like AWS through employee voices
[26:33] Joshua’s 10-20-70 content framework for LinkedIn engagement
In this episode…
In today’s digital world, it’s harder than ever to stand out authentically online. Social media is saturated with overproduced content, shallow connections, and constant sales pitches, leaving people feeling overwhelmed and disconnected. How can professionals break through the noise, build real trust, and create opportunities rooted in human connection rather than empty metrics?
Joshua B. Lee, a digital marketing leader known as the Dopamine Dealer of LinkedIn, shares how professionals can cut through digital clutter by humanizing their brand. He explains why vulnerability is more powerful than polished promises, how to use personal stories to spark genuine engagement, and why quality always outweighs quantity in content creation. Joshua also introduces his 10-20-70 method for balancing personal insights, company achievements, and value-driven thought leadership, while encouraging gratitude and meaningful conversations as the foundation of growth.
In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Joshua B. Lee, Founder and CEO of StandOut Authority, about building authentic influence on LinkedIn. Joshua emphasizes the importance of vulnerability in content, explains the human algorithm versus platform algorithms, and outlines his 10-20-70 content framework. He also discusses relationship-based networking, the value of gratitude, and how to humanize even large organizations through employee-driven stories.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Quotable Moments:
“Because a thought leader creates a lot of things for you to think about, right?”
“Content's not king anymore. There's so much content, especially with AI.”
“Dopamine without direction is insanity. That's what social media is, right?”
“Dopamine with intention creates connection; creates flow state.”
“The number one rule in my house with my kids is it's nice to be nice.”
Action Steps:
Share personal stories on LinkedIn: Revealing real experiences helps humanize your brand and build authentic trust with your audience.
Prioritize quality over quantity in content: Overproduced, AI-driven posts create noise, while quality content resonates and stands out in crowded spaces.
Adopt the 10-20-70 content method: Balancing personal stories, company achievements, and value-driven insights builds credibility and fosters stronger relationships.
Express gratitude in conversations: Thanking someone for engaging disrupts digital habits and sparks meaningful dialogue built on respect.
Focus on relationships over pitches: Investing in genuine conversations builds long-term advocates who generate more opportunities than one-time sales.
Sponsor for this episode...
This is brought to you by Quik!
At Quik!, we provide forms automation and management solutions for companies seeking to maximize their potential productivity.
Using our FormXtract API, you can submit your completed forms and get clean, context-rich data that is 99.9% accurate.
Our vision is to become the leading forms automation company by making paperwork the easiest part of every transaction.
Meanwhile, our mission is to help the top firms in the financial industry raise their bottom line by streamlining the customer experience with automated, convenient solutions.
Go to www.quickforms.com to learn more, or contact us with questions at support@quikforms.com.
Episode Transcript:
Intro: 00:02
Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast, where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and in turn, grow their business.
Richard Walker: 00:16
Hey, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins, where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win and how their focus on customer experience leads to growth. I want to dedicate this episode to my Speakeasy mastermind group in Austin, Texas. Without them, I'd be lost, and with them, I had the amazing fortune of becoming friends with today's guest and many others. Some of my past guests have included David Steel of One WealthAdvisors, Vickie Lewin of Amplify, and Tracy Lee of This Dot Labs. Today, I'm speaking with Joshua B Lee, the founder of StandOut Authority, and today's episode is brought to you by Quik!, the leader in enterprise forms processing.
When your business relies upon processing forms. Don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms instead. Get Quik! using our Form Xtract API. Simply submit your completed forms and get back clean. Context-rich data that reduces manual reviews to only one out of a thousand submissions.
Visit Quick Forms to get started. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready. Today's guest is a game changer in the world of personal branding, digital influence, and human connection. If you've ever wondered how to stand out in the noisy digital world, build a personal brand that creates real opportunities and leverage LinkedIn like a powerhouse, then you're in for a masterclass. Joining us today is Joshua B Lee, also known as and I love this title, the dopamine dealer of LinkedIn.
I think we're all connected to that. To that. With over two decades in digital marketing, Joshua has built 16 businesses, managed nearly $1 billion in ad spend, and driven 35 trillion online impressions. But here's the thing: he realized that metrics don't build relationships. People do.
And that's why he founded StandOut Authority, where he helps executives, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders humanize their brands and turn engagement into real-world impact. Josh, welcome to The Customer Wins.
Joshua B. Lee: 02:11
Oh, Rich, I am so excited about this conversation today.
Richard Walker: 02:15
Me too man. Thank you for being here. So for those who haven't heard this podcast before, I love to talk to business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they build and deliver a great customer experience, and the challenges to growing their own company. So, Josh, I want to understand your business a little better, maybe a lot better. How does your company help people?
Joshua B. Lee: 02:35
You know, in a world that's just so cluttered with noise? We actually help people stand out, and actually people that are actually trying to add value to this world, not just monetize it, right? So that's one of the biggest things that we saw. Or as you mentioned before, right, Rich, like there was 35 million online impressions. I'm not sure how many people actually helped.
I sold a lot of things, but I didn't really help a lot of people. And so that's where standard authority is born. To shift from how do I sell you to how do I actually educate, inspire, and draw you in? Get someone to choose to want to work with you rather than being sold into wanting to work with you? So that's what we do, right?
We work with these people who really want to be able to really amplify their voice and create advocates first over clients, because an advocate can bring a thousand clients. And what we do is we take over their LinkedIn and really humanize their brand online. So that's what we do. And honestly, man, I've been able to work with men and women that I used to read their books on how to be able to start my own companies 20 years ago, and it's just one of the most rewarding things I've done. And in all the companies I've built over the years.
Richard Walker: 03:41
You know, I love this word rewarding because you shifted from, oh, I could sell you stuff to I can help you, right? And I think in my business, I don't want to sell anybody. I feel like, please don't call me a salesperson. It's almost offensive to me. I want to help people.
And that's where I feel like we really derive the most value in life. So you're helping people be actually seen for what they can do. I mean, I can't tell you how many people are like, rich. You need to be a thought leader. I'm like, okay, how?
So? So, Josh, how?
Joshua B. Lee: 04:13
Let me stop you there. Right. Like because. Yes, 100%, but I don't. Rich.
I don't want you to be a thought leader either. Hell, I sure as hell don't want you to be an influencer. Because when we think influencers, you and I, I mean, we're on the older side, right? So, like, I think half naked youth, you know, running around trying to sell me some sunglasses, they, they didn't even didn't even buy. What I want you to be is a thought leader with influence.
Because a thought leader creates a lot of things for you to think about, right? You made someone ponder, but a thought leader with influence actually helps you, gives you the education that you want to take action on. And so that's what I would love everyone to really reframe what they're looking at right now. And I think LinkedIn is one of those most powerful platforms to be able to do that right now, because you have an audience there that they're not going there on most social media platforms to lose themselves in someone else's life, right? We got these TikTok holes and everything else that people fall into.
Maybe me occasionally.
Richard Walker: 05:10
But I'm so guilty.
Joshua B. Lee: 05:13
Yeah. I mean, like, dude, we're not going on LinkedIn to go. Let me just go explore and fall into a hole in Rich's life. Like Josh's life. It just doesn't happen.
Usually you're going to LinkedIn to either get educated on a decision or to make a decision, right? Like that's the main reason outside of hiring people, because we all know LinkedIn's. That's the basis of what they do to either get a job or be hired. But it shifted so much, especially since Microsoft took it over a couple of years ago. And so, like, that's the reason why, before we get into how to become that, right?
Like I wanted to at least change the frame of reference on what we were kind of talking about.
Richard Walker: 05:51
I actually really appreciate that because to be a thought leader, I'm like, well, what do I have to have a PhD or something? I don't even know what it means. Yeah, I, I think of it more in terms of I have some expertise, I have some knowledge that maybe most people don't have. How do I share that? How do I get it out there?
And I love this thing that you said. You're trying to humanize people because I think a lot of the times, I mean, geez, look at your LinkedIn feed. How much of it is mechanical product versus what's going on with humans?
Joshua B. Lee: 06:21
So how do shiny things right? Like everyone's like, look at my shiny thing. And you're like, okay, you know, that's that's not what everyone's there for.
Richard Walker: 06:30
Well, and I think one of the worst things in social media is the pretense that, oh, they're having this most amazing vacation, which is why I love TikTok, that says social media versus reality. And it's totally different, right? Yeah, because everyone wants to think everybody else's life is better than theirs. So how do you humanize people and not just live with that pretense about, oh, I'm on this great trip and I'm meeting with these awesome people. like, did you conduct business?
Did you?
Joshua B. Lee: 06:54
Well, that's the thing. Like I'm going in here, you know, like really quickly. Everyone was looking at his. So let me ask you, Rich like investment banking at Donaldson Lufkin and generic. Right.
It says that was your. That's your first job that shows on your LinkedIn. Is that really your first job ever?
Richard Walker: 07:11
No. Of course, my first job was telemarketing at a mortgage company where I got fired 16 years old.
Joshua B. Lee: 07:16
So why? Why don't we see that? Like, you're missing that humanization, right? Like this is an opportunity for you to be able to connect, like, oh my God, I, I did telemarketing to, like, maybe one day I could become and be at the level where Rich is, so like, that's that that's what I'm talking about. Humanization.
Right. Because if you look at mine, it shows that I worked at Chili's as a server, as my first job, and I too got fired from Chili's because I was giving away free soup to my friends. So guess what? As human beings, we look for commonality, right? That's why you and I are in speakeasy, right?
We find commonality between those human beings that are there. People forget that on LinkedIn they go, oh, well, I want to be this person, dude. When I used to introduce myself as, hey, I'm Joshua B Lee, I started 14 companies. I've been a millionaire twice. I remember a buddy of mine was like, I'm Ron Lynch.
He goes, dude, you just did this to you and the person you're talking to. This is the gap between them. When you start going in and be like, oh, I was a telemarketer, I got fired. I'm like, dude, I worked at Chili's and got fired. My job.
Two hour gap between you and I just went to this. Like, now we're now we're sitting on a couch together, hanging out.
Richard Walker: 08:28
Yeah. This explains, by the way, that my most popular post is me cold, plunging. Not my business, not my travels. It's literally something that people are like, how can you do that? I want to hear about it.
I want to learn. I've had I've probably sold a dozen cold plunges without knowing it because of it.
Joshua B. Lee: 08:47
But that's that whole piece, right? Because they can go in and they can see themselves through the eyes of your stories. And I think that's what we need to be able to understand is content's not king anymore. Right. Like there's so much content, especially with AI.
We all see it everywhere with the dashes and everything else. I mean, you shared something that was amazing recently on how to be able to actually get rid of all this AI jargon that continues to pop up. And like, you're right. Right. Like, this is what they're doing.
There's so much content. It's like rich. It reminds me of this, right? It reminds me of, like on a Friday night, you know, we get the Netflix and chill. My, wife Rachel and I were sitting there like, we spend more time trying to figure out what we're going to watch than actually watching something.
And Rachel was usually like, if you don't pick something soon, I swear I will murder you. And that's that's online. Yeah. And so they want that real. They want that raw.
Because when we see overproduced content, we're all conditioned at this point in time to wait for the pitch. And that's what people are trying to be able to do is put this AI I over-polished garbage online and they're just putting more AI noise into the world. When the world's already noisy. So I want to add value that cuts through that noise because content is not king. Like I said, quality is queen, and that's where I think we need to really pay attention to now.
Richard Walker: 10:06
I think you're asking something different, Josh. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Joshua B. Lee: 10:10
Okay.
Richard Walker: 10:11
I think you're asking us to be vulnerable. Well, I mean, it was scary for me to post that. Me in my bathing suit with no shirt on, social media, getting into a cold plunge. My wife's snickering and laughing at me, saying, yeah, that's right. Pray like you're going into this cold plunge.
You know, that is very vulnerable compared to, oh, I'm the CEO. I've done this XYZ. Like you said, how am I right? Is that what you're asking us to do? 100%.
Joshua B. Lee: 10:38
I mean, I want people we. There are so many other people in this world. Now, let me tell you, I don't think anyone's doing what you are doing at Quik! right now. And that's why you're having so much success. But like, there's a whole bunch of people doing LinkedIn and like, look, y'all like LinkedIn's the vehicle of what I do, right?
What Rachel and I do at StandOut Authority, it's how to be able to humanize your presence online. Right. Like how to be able to stand out in a, in a crowded space. And LinkedIn's just that vehicle. We do better than anyone in the world.
And so like what you're talking about being vulnerable 100%. Right. Like that's what people want to be able to see. And that's how they connect. Because that you're looking for the person that you can hang out with and enjoy doing business with.
Because I have 50 other thousand people I could choose to work with, but I like Josh, I get, oh, you know, and this is that thing, right? Like, oh, Josh has been divorced. Me too. Oh. We connect.
Oh, Josh has kids. Oh, he's a dad. Me too. Right. Like, that's what we're looking for because we look for those people that we enjoy because, like, tell me if I'm wrong, rich, like, you've been doing business for a while.
How many times you get on a phone call? Or maybe not now, but you have in the past that pit in your stomach like, dude, okay, I gotta get on the phone call with Josh again. Like, everyone has that because they're like, well, I gotta pay the bills, right?
Richard Walker: 11:59
Sure, sure.
Joshua B. Lee: 12:01
I don't want to do that anymore. Right? Like, I want to the first, when I look at who I'm working with is do I can I enjoy hanging out with this person? Right. Yeah.
And it's hard. Like we live in a world that isn't that easy. But when you make the byproduct of what you do, the money, not the not money being the forefront, it really changes the entire game and actually sets you apart from everybody else. And I think that's that's what I'm trying to push everyone to do. Like you said, being vulnerable 100% marketers have ruined being authentic.
So I'm glad you said vulnerable because if you said being authentic, that's what marketers, marketers ruin everything by taking something that's true. And then just.
Richard Walker: 12:39
I'm so tired of somebody's got to be your authentic self. Oh, it just grinds me. No, it's not about that. It's it. Yes.
Be true to who you are. You're the only example of you in the universe. So be you. That's it. Be proud of it.
I want to tell you a story. I don't think I've ever said this on the show, but, you know, 20 years ago, 23 years ago, I start my company. I was 26, 27 years old, very young. And I was in the mode of being an engineer because I was building the product. Certainly I loved business, always have.
I've started ten companies, so I was looking at how do I make this work? And when I got into enterprise conversations, you know, we started up, we were talking to some VP, my partner who was in sales. He would spend the first ten minutes talking about cigars and sailboats. It would drive me crazy, like, why are we doing this? They have a problem.
I want to solve it. I have a tech. I want to tell them about it. And it took me years to understand. In fact, it took me taking improv classes to understand that building rapport and playing with people is what builds the dynamic that makes them want to work with you.
Joshua B. Lee: 13:37
Oh my God, it's so true. I mean, it's it's what I call my door to the couch mentality, right? Compared to me knocking on your door and like, you and I get this all. I mean, like, I probably get it once a week where someone's like, hey, I was I was at your neighbor's house down the street, and we're doing their roof or windows or. Yeah, whatever.
And they suggested like one they probably didn't suggest to come over to my house. And two, like, no thank you. Right. You're closing the door. But if you're you and I are sitting on a couch hanging out and you're like, Josh, man, I just picked up these AirPods.
I'm probably because of that commonality, because of that rapport. I'll take it from you. I'm like, dude, tell me more. Why? Why you get them?
And that's what we need people to understand, right? Because in this world right now, people go from connect to pitch. They're trying to get as fast as possible. That's just especially on LinkedIn. I mean, dude, I I'm not kidding.
You. Like, Rachel and I are running event here real soon, and I just got a message from one of my friends. They're like, hey, do you know this person? I'm like, no. They're like, well, here's the message he sent.
And basically what he does is he uses an AI or something like that to scan all the people that are going to my LinkedIn or LinkedIn event and then messages them, uses our name, says, hey, I see we're all going to Josh and Rachel, then hey, let's connect. And then he pitches. That's just spamming, right? That's not relationship building because people forget you've got to connect. And once you connect, you know you got to have a conversation.
Conversations build relationships. Relationships create opportunity. In today's world that's what we have to do. And it's not connect to pitch. That's just pitching a thousand people, getting them one sale and you're like, yay!
No, you just pissed off 999 people. But if you treat people with respect, actually trying to get the gnome one, you don't have to pitch a thousand people. You do a lot less. You can actually have build relationships with the right amount of people in human beings and create advocates because you treated with them the same respect that you would want to see in return.
Richard Walker: 15:34
All right. Give me some feedback on this. I have I have something I do with LinkedIn. I want to see what your take is on it. All right.
If I'm going to typically a small event, a round table, a dinner. And I have the guest list ahead of time. It's circulated amongst everybody. I will do my best to go reach out to every single one of those people via LinkedIn and say, I'm coming to this event. You're coming to this event.
I would love to build rapport with you ahead of time. So when we meet in person, we've had some contact.
Joshua B. Lee: 16:00
I love you like dude, like, you know how many events because I do the same thing, right? Because we're going to the event. That's okay. Like because you're actually doing something, not you're not trying to pitch, you're trying to build rapport. How many events I go to and speak at and I go, okay, who here reached out to all the speakers and said, hey, I'm excited to be able to see you.
You know how many people raise your hand? Usually me. Yeah, usually only me. I'm like, dude, why not? This is the opportunity you like.
You're going there to see the speakers. Why not send them a message ahead of time? And that might be your opportunity to actually build a connection with them.
Richard Walker: 16:39
So here's the other side of this. I went to an event last fall. It was an eye round table. I reached out to over 25 people. I was able to have, I think, 3 or 4 Zoom meetings and that's it.
Like, I felt like not that many people cared to respond, but a few people did. And then when I met him in person, it was total magic. Like we had talked already. We had seen each other already. It was like I knew them.
I wasn't the solo person in the room, but it's 3 or 4, a good response. I mean, is that good enough?
Joshua B. Lee: 17:07
Better than none, right? Like you tried. I mean, I'd rather have 3 or 4 conversations than zero and walking into a room. So I think this is where people get their entire, you know, we've all been taught like, oh, you've got to have a certain response rate. Like one conversation is better than none.
And I mean, I was thinking.
Richard Walker: 17:25
More in line with I was more concerned, like, I'm coming across like a salesperson or something.
Joshua B. Lee: 17:30
Realize that half the people don't. Well, maybe just the way it is, right? Like, so like I look for trigger points on how I, how I connect like events is one of them. But on average I'm. I'm looking for trigger points because I hate cold calling and I hate cold email.
And like most marketers, they don't care if it if it gets them clients, they'll do the things that they hate. And I just can't be that person. And so like and everything that I do, it's it's based on honestly what my mom taught me how to treat other human beings. And so really what it is, is and so I don't know if we talked about it in the intro, but like one of my first clients was Myspace. Right.
Like that usually gives a good age for me. Like people are like, oh, Mohawk is yeah, I'm almost 50. So, you know, we're getting there. I had someone, it's one of those social media don't listen to this old guy. He's got a mohawk.
And I'm like, okay, so be it.
Richard Walker: 18:23
Answer, answer, answer for everybody. How long have you had your mohawk?
Joshua B. Lee: 18:27
I think I've had it for about five years, because when I met my wife, I had a man bun, longer hair, and she was very scared that I was gonna. And we've been married for almost six years now. So, you know, it's she was very scared when I, I cut it off. But now it's just become the standard. Right.
So and it hides all my greys on the side.
Richard Walker: 18:52
Clever, clever.
Joshua B. Lee: 18:54
But but and like my kids go and I'm like maybe like, you know, 50% grey and my kids look at my hair and they're like, dad, dude, you're like 80% grey. You just can't see it as well. I'm like, thank you, love you. But but seriously though, like when I'm connecting and since I've been online since the Myspace days, I've realized like, we've been all conditioned, right. Like the human algorithm online, which, honestly, y'all like stop chasing algorithms.
Like they change all the time like that. You're just looking for hacks and tricks, and you have to find the next hack and trick. But the human algorithm doesn't change. And it's it's like comment, share post, like comment, share post. Y'all have all been conditioned to just fall in that pattern.
Like comment, share Post. Enrich you and I know like to create a stop gap in someone's pattern is how you actually get them to like, pay attention and listen. Well, the easiest way I found and and honestly, this kind of came about at doing it, but it really hit hard during that the Covid days, which was the things that we take for granted. Right? Like, there were so many things that we took for granted back then that we didn't realize until they were taken away from us.
And that was the same thing, right? On LinkedIn, I can see everyone that looks at my profile and engages with my content. But what I started doing was, hey Rich, I saw you looked at my my looked me up on, looked up my profile and I just want to reach out and say thank you. You know, too often we don't take time to appreciate that. Love to find out what pushed you to look me up.
You see how that's a little bit more human? Hey, I'm trying to start a conversation. I want to say thank you. Thank you. When you thank someone for something they take for granted, it makes them pause.
Richard Walker: 20:33
Yeah.
Joshua B. Lee: 20:34
Same thing. Hey, Rich. I, I saw you like my recent post, man. I'd love to find. Just want to reach out and say thank you.
You know, I'd love to find out what pushed you to engage in my content, right? Things like that starts a conversation because I'm making it about them. And this is kind of how I got that dopamine dealer name, because here's the piece that everyone I think everyone we're all taught, oh, dopamine is bad. Well, dopamine without direction is insanity. That's what social media is, right?
But dopamine with intention creates connection, creates flow state. When you have dopamine that you deal with intention, it allows you and I to build a better and stronger bond together. And that's what I'm doing, right? I'm like, hey, just want to reach out and say thank you. Oh thank you.
We connect at that point. This is where most people go, oh my time to pitch. Yeah. No, that is wrong. This is your time to do what my mom always taught me again, which was when you meet someone new, you give them a compliment.
Just like when you and I met. Well, not. We've met for a long time. We've known each other for a long time. But today.
Right. Like you're like, oh, dude, the shoes, they're amazing. Or you show me your skateboard. I was like, dude, that's awesome. Like, we say nice things.
It's a compliment. So I know in the financial service, you have to be a little careful on this. But one thing that we did was I actually go and given a basic endorsement, which is not a recommendation. It's an on LinkedIn at the bottom of your page. And LinkedIn says, hey, Rich, Josh and Dorsey for marketing.
Do you want to say thank you? Yeah, all it is. And people go, how can you do that? I go, well, the number one rule in my house with my kids is it's nice to be nice. It's amazing what that does.
Right? Yeah. And it's I'm not saying anything. It's just a basic thing. It's not like I'm writing recommendation about them.
And so. And then allows them to come back like, oh Josh, thank you so much man. And now we can actually start a real conversation. And so that's kind of where we go through these things. And that's so when you're talking about reaching out to people like at events, hey, I caught one of your last events.
I'm really looking forward to thank you so much for or hey, really, you know, again, try to work in a thank you in there. However, while you're reading them. Hey really excited. You know, I saw thank you for whatever you do. It's it's hard because we're not conditioned to say thank you to people that often, but if you can't.
Richard Walker: 22:52
I yeah, I, I, I don't know exactly how I said it, but I basically believe a life of gratitude is better than the alternative.
Joshua B. Lee: 22:59
100%.
Richard Walker: 23:01
Yeah. And it's also I mean, yeah, my, my wife has seen me do this and asked, why do you smile at every stranger you see? I'm like, well, what's the opposite? Frown at them and make them feel weird. Not, not give them.
I mean, what if they smile back? I gave them an opportunity. I smile.
Joshua B. Lee: 23:16
At everybody. The only time I ever felt weird about that was when I was in Seattle. They got this thing called the Seattle Freeze. And people try again, if you're from Seattle, everyone, I apologize, but it's just what I noticed. Try to smile and everyone looks down.
My wife lived there for a little bit when she worked for Microsoft, so like, that's why I spent some time there.
Richard Walker: 23:33
Oh, man. Okay. I want to switch gears a little bit here.
Joshua B. Lee: 23:35
Yeah.
Richard Walker: 23:36
We've been talking on the very human aspect and people aspect, but you have major clients like AWS, Amazon and others. I don't remember the list. How do you humanize an AWS?
Joshua B. Lee: 23:49
Dude, that's the amazing thing, right? Like I remember and I just want to preface everyone, like I've had a prolific, you know, career working with some of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the world. But I was not able by to get a company like AWS. Like my wife. I'm not from the corporate world.
Right. And usually, you have to kind of have come from the corporate world. Now it's either you have to come from the corporate world to actually get access back into it. And that was my wife Rachel. Right.
And she was able to kind of, you know, create these opportunities for us to be able to have these conversations. But, you know, it was interesting when we went to them, the first thing they said, which was like, thank you. And I'm like, are you taking me? Like, you know, every agency that comes to us, they pitch us on their funnel or their lead gen system. We are AWS.
We don't need a funnel and we don't need lead gen. People know who we are. We need to be able to take because they spent years and people don't pay attention to this. AWS went out and went and hired some of the top C level executives from all these other major, major fortune 100 companies and brought them under their roof. And then that's it.
They didn't tell anybody. And so what we did was we said, oh, this is we're going to come in and we're actually going to help them build a voice, not their usual look at me, I'm standing on stage. I'm amazing. But how do we actually tell your story? Right.
How do we actually go in and create content that actually drives not only back? And we were able to show such a huge representation of the opportunity because they had spent I mean, it's crazy numbers like before we went in and hopefully he won't get pissed with it. But like half $1 million on, you know, B2B influencer posts and stuff like that. And we're looking at the return, I'm like, cool, that's great. But like Egc employee generated content is one of the top performing opportunities right now because you have people that are working for your company that care enough to talk about your company.
And that's what people want. They want the real people. They don't want Joe Schmo that's, you know, has a 2 million followers on, on Instagram talking about your company because they're like, we all know at this point in time, they probably got paid to do it. Yeah. You know, so when you got the employees going through and that's what we did, right?
We went through and we helped them. And here's my framework. It's the ten 2070 method of content creation. So everyone's heard of 8020. But ten 2070 is 10% personal.
Human beings connect with other human beings, right? We have to be like, so school has started for my kids. So, you know, you got on Facebook, you got the usual obligatory post. Hey, first day of school, right?
Richard Walker: 26:33
Yeah.
Joshua B. Lee: 26:33
Cool. That's great for Facebook. I don't I need to know you have kids. I don't need to know when they go to school. On on LinkedIn.
Right. So like. Oh, like I said earlier, Josh's dad. Oh me too. Right.
We're dads. We connect 20% of your content to people to work in. There is about your company, but not what you can do for someone. What you have done. I don't care that you think you can make someone seven figures.
I care that you've been able to actually help someone else, right? Tell me. I want to learn and hear through the stories of the people. Go, man, I would love that outcome too, right? Rich was able to do that for someone.
Yeah.
Richard Walker: 27:09
Sorry to interrupt. It's the difference between a promise and a fact. Right? I want to see the facts. I mean, I hear promises all day long, but show me facts.
Joshua B. Lee: 27:17
I can go down the street. And especially now in Austin. These days, it seems like there's more Ferraris and Lamborghinis than ever before. But I can go lean on someone's Lamborghini and go. I too can show you how to make seven figures.
I've never done that before. And it's not my Lamborghini. But when you hear the stories of what you're going through, there's a different tonality to that content, right? There's a there's a rawness to it. And the last piece is 70% of that content needs to be you need to be an aggregator of value.
No one can be you. We talked about this, right? No one can be you without you.
Richard Walker: 27:49
Yeah.
Joshua B. Lee: 27:49
And so people are so scared to give away. They're like, oh, it's my secret. It's my pretty. I'm going to hold on to it. And come on.
Like, it's it's not like I promise you, in this world, if you show someone everything that it took the rich to be able to do what? Y'all do it quick. How many people go cool. Can you just do that for me? Right.
Richard Walker: 28:10
I, to be honest, I've already had $1 billion company try to put us out of business and couldn't replicate what we do. And I've had a couple other companies try to do the same. Even if I told you exactly how it's done. Execution is hard, right? Mindset is hard.
And this unique skills that I have, my executives have, my team members have are unique to us. How are you going to replicate that?
Joshua B. Lee: 28:32
So that's that 70%, right? That's what you've got to be able to do. Just give it away. Because most people, even if I tell you how to make the hamburger, you're still going to probably be like, oh, I don't have time. The right people that you and I want to work with don't have time because they value their time over money.
And so they're willing to be able to go, you know what? It's amazing. Thank you for telling me everything that goes into it. That sounds exhausting. I'd love for you to do it.
And the cool thing about all this too, is that ten, 20, 70 method positions you amazing in this new world of AI where we're shifting a little bit from SEO to EO, answer internet optimization, where we're in a zero click mentality for you to become the answer. And LinkedIn's an amazing platform to be able to do that because it gets highly, highly indexed not only by Google, but it also because Microsoft owns them. And Microsoft, let's be honest, owns open AI as well. And this is where AWS saw it. They're like, oh, they're our competitors.
How can we actually go in inside of their system to be able to make us look better? And that's what we were able to do, right? We were able to optimize those human beings. So they became the answers in this new AI revolution. And that's that's the amazing thing about it by setting that.
So that's what I want. That's what we do for companies, right? We help them become the answer because that's great. Everyone looks for a solution. But a solution means work, right?
I want the answer because I want the outcome. No one cares how the hamburger is made. They just care about the outcome. And that's why you have to be the answer. And in today's world too, AI is looking for the human beings that are providing the answers, not the companies anymore.
Richard Walker: 30:12
Yeah, you've given me so many things to think of. My brain is like spinning and honestly, I'm like, wow. I think the number one phrase I want to hear from my customers is, I don't want to do that. Do that for me, right? I don't have time for that.
In fact, we were talking about it yesterday. We're thinking now about our product and reassessing its capabilities because we love engineering. We love building stuff. So we built all these things that people have asked for. Most people don't realize we can do.
I'll just give you an example. If you have to fill out a form and then sign it digitally, you'd type into the form. You would upload it into DocuSign. You would tag all the fields for signature. You'd address the envelope to the recipients.
You'd write the message. You would do.
Joshua B. Lee: 30:56
It every day. Yes. It's exhausting.
Richard Walker: 30:57
Yeah. You do all these steps right? It's roughly seven steps. But because we built an integration to DocuSign, it is one step. And we've just never thought about this.
Josh, from the standpoint of how much time are we saving somebody simply because we have this one-click method versus a seven-click step method? And why don't we quantify that and talk about how we're solving that problem. Because if somebody were to think about what you just said, like I do this every day, if I now show you you could do it with one click instead, you'd be like, sign me up for that. I don't want to do that anymore.
Joshua B. Lee: 31:28
In the right client understands that time is a resource we can't get back, and that's actually a higher and more powerful resource to optimize than actually the money aspect of it.
Richard Walker: 31:40
Yeah, man. We are running out of time. And I want to talk to you about so many more things. It's a good thing we're both part of the mastermind, so I can pick your brain over lunch one of these days.
Joshua B. Lee: 31:49
Anytime, my friend.
Richard Walker: 31:51
So as we get to the end here, I do have another really good question to ask you. But before that, what is the best way for people to find and connect with the human Joshua Bailey?
Joshua B. Lee: 32:00
You know, I love this question because again, it allows me to get to know the audience as well, because on LinkedIn. Surprise, surprise. Find me Joshua Bailey. But remember, everyone, I do not play Pokémon on LinkedIn. I'm not trying to collect them all.
That is not what LinkedIn is for. That's why your feeds suck right now and you get pitched all the time because you just accept. I want everyone to send me a personalized message on why they love you or listen to your podcast. Rich because not only do I get to understand who they are and where they found me, but I get to know you better as well.
Richard Walker: 32:30
Oh that's brilliant. That's brilliant. I got to admit, I only accept people I've met. And if you write to me, I get so much spam on LinkedIn. If you write to me, you have to have a good reason.
You have to tell me, like, why is this interesting? Not unless I just talk to you on the phone and you're like, oh, I'm going to go connect with him. Fine, I get that. That means we've met. I want to meet the people I'm connected to.
Joshua B. Lee: 32:50
I get it.
Richard Walker: 32:50
Yeah, man, I love that. Okay, so here comes my last question, which, honestly, is my favorite question. Who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style and how you approach your role today?
Joshua B. Lee: 33:04
This is a person that's here in Austin. I'm not sure if you've ever met him before. Maybe you have. His name is Jesse Elder. I did.
Richard Walker: 33:11
Meet Jesse.
Joshua B. Lee: 33:12
Yes. Jesse is a phenomenal human being. He's the man who perfectly blends blends business with woo woo in a perfectly symbiotic way, right? Like, not too much of either on both sides. But he's he's the guy that actually gave me permission to take my life back.
You know, ten years ago, I was I seemed like I was, you know, on top of the world. But behind the scenes, it was in my office, staring at a wall, contemplating if the life I was living was worth it, or the money I would leave for my kids if I wasn't around anymore, would be better. And he gave me permission to take my life back and to be 100% me 100% of the time. And let me tell you, I don't ever take that for granted, because it's allowed me to be able to be where I am and be on a podcast like this with you.
Richard Walker: 34:01
Dude. That's amazing. I had the pleasure of sitting next to him at dinner hosted by Joe Stolte for an I conversation, so I got to know him a little bit and I could just see this guy's got amazing qualities and depth that you can't.
Joshua B. Lee: 34:16
Recommend.
Richard Walker: 34:17
Getting.
Joshua B. Lee: 34:17
To know him. Yeah.
Richard Walker: 34:18
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That is is awesome. All right. So I want to give a huge thank you to Joshua Bailey, founder of StandOut Authority for being on this episode of The Customer Wins.
Go check out Josh's website at StandoutAuthority.com. And don't forget to check out Quik! at Quickforms.com, where we make processing forms easier. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'll click the like button, share this with someone, and subscribe to our channels for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Thank you so much for joining me today, Josh.
Joshua B. Lee: 34:50
Hey Rich, I'm happy to be here, and I hope everyone remembers, look, the 100% you 100% of the time on and offline. So much easier than trying to be something else. You're not.
Outro: 35:01
Thanks for listening to The Customer Wins podcast. We'll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.