Leveraging Thought Leadership With Peter Winick – Episode 18 – Waldo Waldman

Peter Winick

Is anyone content to being “average”? Of course not! That’s why you need to know your niche; it helps you lay the groundwork for exceptional success.

Lt. Col. Rob ‘Waldo’ Waldman joins Peter in this episode. Waldo is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, a New York Times Bestselling Author, and a decorated fighter pilot. During their discussion, Waldo shares his approach to creating authentic, powerful, and actionable content.

Waldo provides insight into his high energy, high impact style of sales, and talks about the kind of preparation that is essential to success and staying power. He also talks about the way research into the client’s needs is essential, and how your content should attack those issues and provide customized solutions.

This episode is an inspiration, recommended for anyone looking to improve their sales game and drive major changes in their business.

If you need a strategy to bring your thought leadership to market, Thought Leadership Leverage can assist you! Contact us for more information. In addition, we can help you implement marketing, research, and sales. Let us help you so you can devote yourself to what you do best.

Transcript

Peter Winick Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Peter Winick. I am the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage and we’re on the podcast today, Leveraging Thought Leadership with my good buddy, Rob Waldo Waldman. Rob, say hello.

Waldo Waldman How are you doing, everybody? This talk to you.

Peter Winick Be cool. So let me give everybody a little bit of Waldo’s background because it’s impressive. He’s a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller with Never Fly Solo. He is a decorated combat fighter pilot. He’s fought 65 real world combat missions. So if you think your day job is tough, his day job was a little bit tougher. He’s got an MBA. He has been inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. He was on the board of directors there. He speaks a ton, probably 75, 100 times a year. He gives a lot back to sort of the speaking community. And he is one of the most innovative and creative speakers that I know with regards to the marketing, the positioning, all the grind and the hard work that you need to do to differentiate. So I very much appreciate having you on today. How you doing today?

Waldo Waldman Awesome. Awesome. And it’s always great to connect with you. Peter. I know when we met years ago, when you work with another author and stuff, you were very generous with your time and we built a relationship and a friendship and it’s fun. It’s a lot more than that. So I’m thankful to connect with you today.

Peter Winick And I’m glad to have you on. Okay, so let’s get into the fun stuff here. So the people out there listening to the zillions that we hope or dozens at least that we hope are listening, are aspiring or established author speakers and thought leaders that are looking to scale and leverage their content. So you do a lot of interesting things. You’re not afraid to experiment. Give me a just a quick overview of some of the things that you’re doing or some of the things that you’ve tried that maybe may have seemed to have been a bright idea at the time but didn’t work. And more importantly, some of the things that you’re involved in now that you’re doing and we’ll get to speaking in a minute, but how else are you getting the message out there, the wingman brand?

Waldo Waldman So, you know, as a fighter pilot, I was very maniacal about the growth, about challenge, about change. You know, I love being in that exciting environment. That’s what really, really fires me up. And that’s why being an entrepreneur and a speaker and, you know, the master of my own destiny, the ultimate pilot in command of my life, is really important. I think anybody listening would understand that because as an entrepreneur, there’s a tremendous amount of risk as well as reward. And I think it’s important. It’s so important to find your sweet spot, to find out what it is that you’re good at and really drive deep and vertical in that without being distracted with some of the residual things that may be pulling you off your sweet spot. You know, I call it the diamond of your content. You know, what is it that you can deliver 24 seven and feel good about doing it and get paid for it while avoiding some of the things that may not be may not feed your soul and they may provide a little bit of revenue. But nay district and what you’re good at. And if that happens, that’s when you can that’s a recipe for disaster.

Peter Winick And you’re really you’re really good at that. Well, you know your space. You know what you rock at you you’re constantly mastering your craft. But I imagine also, you know, the other side of that is as an entrepreneur and it’s early on and it’s years ago for you and you’re struggling a bit and somebody comes along and says, Well, I know this isn’t exactly your type of gig, but dot, dot, dot. It takes courage to say no and say, Yeah, you know, I could use the paycheck or whatever. But tell me about the importance of really staying in your lane.

Waldo Waldman Well, nothing will build more credibility and be the best referral source for you and the best marketing and advertise than the program you do as a speaker, as a consultant, as a seminar leader. So if you go out there and you start flying by the seat of your pants and don’t have that true authentic value proposition up there, you know, it’s a slow, insidious descent. The irrelevancy, if you try to be all things to all people. So, yes, you have to learn to say no. And then in that sense, the more powerful and more passionate about, you know, truly going for what you’re good at and not, you know, selling out for something that dilutes your core.

Peter Winick And part of knowing, knowing what you’re good at while there is not just knowing, obviously we’re talking about this from the content perspective. But I think the other piece of this, and you touched on it a moment ago, is the niche piece who you’re in front of, right? Because you could be awesome at a specific piece of content, but if delivered in front of the wrong audience. That’s not going to work, right? You know, you’re probably not going to take the hearing impaired to the orchestra or the blind, to the theater or something like that. So how do how do you know the audience is that what’s that journey been for you? To find the audiences that you know are just really in your sweet spot?

Waldo Waldman Well, it definitely evolves. You know, your market normally finds you. You don’t necessarily push for your market. And so I’ve evolved into where my sweet spot is. And what it is, is really about the sales management sales performance. That’s where 70% of my clients come from. And then also managers and leaders who are looking to build collaborative cultures of trust. Right? So there’s that sales focus side, the performance side and then the leadership side. And I do 7030 of both. However, you know, if you’re a brand manager, I did. I spoke at a brand big meeting in Vegas once, and it just people just didn’t get it. You know, I like to speak for folks who are performance driven, who have looked at.

Peter Winick Sales and in sales management track the fact that it’s 70% of your business. I want to just pause on that for a minute, because oftentimes when I’m talking to people, whether they be clients or people I’m talking to in the space, they don’t have a dominant. And I think that’s always a bad thing. So the thing about sales and sales managers, the more that you’re in that space, you’re regardless of the industry, right? Whether it’s professional services or technology or financial services or insurance, you’re getting their pain points. You get you could really walk in their shoes and say, geez, three weeks ago when I was with this other group, they expressed a similar issue to me. And, you know, they really, I would imagine the not just the client, but the audiences lean in and go, wow, this guy is actually an expert in working with people just like me.

Waldo Waldman Yes. And the way you show that is not just from your past experience. The fact that I was a fight about or I was in sales or an MBA and all that stuff. It’s about truly being relevant. You know, I just got off the phone with Comcast business. I spoke for their West region in Denver and then they rehired me gig three weeks later, which is going to be two weeks from now in in Seattle. And we got on the phone with their sales management now going to talk to their field sales team about 125 their folks, the technical support people. And the reason why I was able to deliver that and get the spin off, which is always nice and obviously it doesn’t always happen, was about being maniacal about studying that prospect, studying the client, being relevant, learning the industry. I’m in the gym on the bike, Googling, Comcast business, internet, you know, all the things about them. I know their competition. I read the periodicals, I leverage my acumen and understanding of history. So that truly is for the folks that are listening when you truly make it about them and put in the time to prepare, just as I did in the fighter pilot mission that makes them say, Wow, this speaker, this consulting is different. They’re not flying by the seat of their pants doing the same story they did last week for IBM or Android.

Peter Winick It’s got to be frankly, a lot of speakers, quite frankly, are lazy, right? So they I’ve got my speech. And I know, you know, in minute, minute 32, I tell this joke and I get this chuckling, whatever. They’re not doing what you’re doing, at least for the most part, meaning being at the gym and reading up on Comcast and really getting into their heads and studying it and understanding it. And I mean, you could add to the so much value to the client just by being well read.

Waldo Waldman And because I’m not a celebrity, I’d like to think I am in some way in my speaker niche. I’ve been doing this for a long time and well-respected, but I am far from a celebrity. I’m not an NFL person. I’m not a politician. I’m not up you know, I didn’t climb Mount Everest and run. Right. And New York Times bestsellers. I’ve got a solid background reputation. So what differentiates me, what I think with the average Joe and Joanne needs is to go out there and totally be prepared, really relevant for that industry and understand the DNA, the blood and guts of that organization, which makes sense. That has value. We’re glad we hired him or her, and that’s how you can kind of be still relevant and value conscious and still hired and in a relatively commoditized game that I’m in. And so that’s my that’s one of the things I do and I, I highly recommend folks really go above and beyond.

Peter Winick What’s let me just touch on one more point on that and another question. But you’re not new at this. You’re doing this, what, 15, 16. How long are you doing this?

Waldo Waldman 16 years.

Peter Winick So 16 years. And I don’t know if the rest of you heard it, but I clearly heard the hunger, the passion, the drive of someone that just started in this game and is hungry and has the funds to want to get his first gig because it’s easy to get fat and lazy. Right. But I love that 16 years into it. That’s why you’re at the top of the game. That’s why you’re all the being speaker and you’re getting all the gigs that you need to get because you put the hard work in. And I can’t underestimate the value of good old fashioned grit and hard work and getting it done. So let me ask you this. Well, there’s two big points out here. Talk to me about let’s start with sort of the whole speaking world, because one of the things that you’ve done better than almost anybody I can think of on the speaking side is you’ve got a brand, you’re authentic to the brand in terms of the languaging that you use, the visual, the look and feel the piece. But tell me how you’ve built that brand and then what you’ve done and what you’re continuing to do to book business in terms of ratio of bureaus to your own, the importance of making it user friendly. The because the other thing I know from being a buddy of yours for a long time is the customer experience at your organization is second to none. And I think a lot of people, again, it’s not a place you get lazy. Somebody fills out an email form, Hey, I’m looking for a speaker. Five days later, you bother to respond like, Are you kidding me? So give me a sense of your view on what are the what you need to do to kill it on the speaking side from a business perspective.

Waldo Waldman And so a lot of folks have great stories. They have amazing backgrounds and just experiences throughout the world. And I don’t think the challenge as much for the speakers that are out there is about platform skills. It’s important. It’s critical. You need to be compelling. You need to share your story and share your value, value ads and all that. But where most speakers fail is in the business. Development is in the brand differentiation because I truly believe that you’ve got to be mint chocolate chip in a vanilla chocolate world.

Peter Winick Yep.

Waldo Waldman You have to pick a flavor, a vertical, something unique about you and your product, your delivery, your brand that separates you from the rest of vanilla chocolate out there. And if you’re going to be vanilla and chocolate, you better be the most phenomenal gluten free. You know. Right. And so I like to be made chocolate chip. And some people. Love me talkative. It’s their favorite ice cream. And some people just don’t want to even smell it. They can’t stand it. And I think to build that brand is going to allow you to differentiate and rather to be a pretty good speaker. She’s not bad. I think she’s pretty good or absolutely yes or absolutely no. And so that’s how you start building a loyal fan base and anything that you do as a brand and we could talk about this for hours and hours period. But the key is also you brand will about your brand will come to you through the wingman that you meet your peers, your partners. You can talk the coaches. That’s why you in the past, you know you help me see what I can’t see and say, What do I notice? You know, there’s something that’s missing here, and I think there’s something you can really tap into. And so a good coach, good speaker, a good business person kind of leverages those relationships to the to a real the blossom, the diamond behind the Cole that you may not even know exists.

Peter Winick So let me push on that a bit. So I know that it’s easy for a speaker, an author, a thought leader, sort of stay locked up in their little universe. Right? So you’re in your home office when your home or your office or whatever the case is. Then you’re on the road and you’re in the hotel room and there’s a loneliness to it. Most of us don’t have, you know, 30 people on staff running at our beck and call and all this sort of stuff. It’s easy to get stuck in your own space and not get that external input influence feedback. And I know that you’re constantly you’re what I would describe as a lifelong learner. You’re always experimenting, always pushing yourself, finding somebody else. Go into a new program. So tell me about that, how that impacts the evolution of the brand and continues to make the product better.

Waldo Waldman Well, the world is changing. The technologies, the tools that are available, the macro scale of the of the world, the political infrastructure, the global city of clients. My things are very, very different now than they were 5 or 10 years ago. And so tapping into the heartbeat, the DNA of business, you know, not just by reading the Harvard Business Review or Businessweek or Google and Business Online, whatever, but really, really paying attention to the seminars that I’m attending. I’m going all over the world at these major conferences with Fortune 500 companies. I listen to the speakers. I want to sit in the back of the room and gather some of that Intel and see what’s relevant. And so, again.

Peter Winick Let me let me stop you there, because you’re putting out some of these nuggets that that you’re pushing through quickly because they’re part of your DNA. Right. But there were I don’t think there are five, maybe ten. I doubt it. 15% of all speakers actually spend any time at the conferences that they’re at just sitting in the back and taking it. And if you’re blessed enough and fortunate to be working with world class organizations at the top of their game.

Waldo Waldman Right.

Peter Winick You know, I would think there’s stuff to learn there. I’m fortunate to be on the road a lot, too. And I’m like, You all sit there, even if it’s an industry I don’t know anything about or it’s a topic I don’t know anything about and just sit there for a half an hour, an hour and learn because I know whoever they’re putting out there is probably top of their game. It’s the pulse of global business. And by accident, I probably learned something. So I love the fact that, you know, 16 years in and probably a thousand something speeches later, you’re still the eager student.

Waldo Waldman Yeah. And that’s the key. And that’s part of my DNA. And I’m passionate about it, like you said. It’s like I just love it. And I don’t want to be average. I never want to take the stage and lose out on an opportunity that says, Wow, Wall was the best speaker we had who really prepared, Hey, maybe he wasn’t as charismatic or he wasn’t. It didn’t have a cool mountain climbing story like some of these other people. But when you truly are authentic and you understand the blood and guts, not just of the organization, by the way, not just because you studied that press releases and had an Intel call right beforehand. But you’re I mean, I talking to people in the gym, I talk to folks at breakfast. I want to know the new hire, 25-year veteran, what’s going on with him or her, You know, what is the love? It is what are the challenges as a as a sales manager for Comcast or for whatever? What are you going through right now? And then that’s how I’m always trying to stay relevant. I want to talk to the folks in the street who are bleeding and sweating, winning and losing day.

Peter Winick And it comes through. It comes through in your delivery. And I would ask everyone listening to just, you know, be honest with yourself for a moment and ask yourself if you’re putting it in at this level, at every game, every, every event that you go to. Are you doing your homework up front? Are you working the room? I don’t be working the room from a networking perspective, but actually talking to the dude next to you or do that or whatever at the gym at seven in the morning, the day of the event or you just sort of reclusive, Are you sitting in on these things? All these things matter. All these things add up and there’s a lot to, to, to learn from while there’s bring it to the table here. Take me back a little bit more on the this the business side of speaking. I always joke that there’s only two types of speakers, those that want to speak more and those that want to speak less. Right. Eventually get to a point where you say, My God, I can’t book another date. But for those that want to book more, tell them, you know, hold no punches. What I’m sitting there now and I’m doing 20 gigs a year and I’m whining that I’m not getting my 60 or 80 or I used to do 30 or how do I get more? What should I be doing?

Waldo Waldman Okay. So I always look at You got it. You got to have the engine, right? The engine is the speech is the content. It’s relevant. A lot of speakers suffer out there because they’re diluted, They’re diffuse. They they’re a motivational speaker or a leadership speaker or talk about customer service. They’re so broad and they don’t understand the pain points and challenges of their specific demographic that they’re going for. Like we talked about before, you know, I’m in sales and sales management for the most part, leadership and clout and changing environments. So you have to find a little bit and be a little bit more specific with your value proposition. Now, once again, we could talk about this for an hour, you an hour, but what is the value? What are the deliverables? What are the problems that you solve? Like I could speakers, I look at their website, it just says their name and leadership. Speaker Nothing about the problems they solve. The challenge is that they help their clients overcome. So tapping into that, putting it front and center on your website, showing your name in front, you know, that that that that that beachfront property. Also, look, video is so relevant. If you look at a you know, if you go on YouTube or social media you see Gary Vaynerchuk and all these other folks, you know, putting out content. So for speaker, you they need to test drive you and sell on your website, on your market, because in your social media and your YouTube channel you be great, relevant, viable content video showing you the test drive, you know, the energy, the passion, the content.

Peter Winick So let me comment on the video. So there’s a spectrum there. So there are videos that you put out. A sizzle reel or something along that that’s highly polished, highly professional. It’s, you know, you’re on the big stage with the, you know, the big logos behind you. And then, you know, I also see that there are occasions where I think it was last week or something on Facebook Live, you had something up based on an incident with your son. And, you know, and that’s a little more gritty. You’re in a t shirt. It’s a Saturday morning. You got a baseball cap on. And, you know, I like both right there times where I can see I want to see what is the product on the stage. But there’s another point I want to see. Well, he’s an interesting dude and he’s got something to say and he’s sharing it with me. Give me a sense of how people shouldn’t feel uncomfortable with experimenting with different levels of polished, if you will.

Waldo Waldman That’s a great point. People want to see raw and real. Raw and real and relevant as well. Obviously, you’ve got to sometimes cut a vein on the stage, show them that you bleed. Show them the humanity behind the business professional that you are. And I think that that authenticity, that real that reality that people are striving for, they don’t go to the TV anymore for a reality show. They want the real pure you on social media or on your videos, etc.. So don’t be afraid to show that. And this is something that takes time to develop. It takes courage. You got to get out of your own head and just tap into those sources. People, you know, you got to remove the shield, remove the mask, so to speak. Right. Requires confidence and also a little bit of humility on your part. People want that. And I think that’s another reason why I’ve been more effective onstage. They don’t need the talking head, the right polished speaker. I think people more than ever a numb to that. They just want a kick in the gut. You know, just a hug, a slap in the face, show me what I do and just and just put it put it bluntly. And once again, mint chocolate chip, because it may not work, but you got to find your tribe allowing them.

Peter Winick And it’s and it’s three dimensional and it’s not some two dimensional newscaster reading from the prompter. When you put out some of the gritty videos, the real you know, you’re taking a walk or you’re sitting in your hotel room or whatever. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you know, It’s like, hey, it’s 10:00 at night. I’ve been working all day and this is the hey, what you see is what you get. So, so video is important. All those pieces that you mentioned on the brand are important. Any other suggestion that you have for someone that’s, you know, I’m not getting enough gigs or, you know, how come about me.

Waldo Waldman You look, this is a sales driven world. It’s a sales driven world. The hungry, the prepared, the committed will win. And you’ve got to be willing to build up a great marketing and sales arsenal of writing, of content marketing materials. If you can’t do it, outsource it. You know, I have an assistant that that’s working in my office next door. Brian He’s been with me for a while. You know, he helps alleviate some of the tedious tasks, the contract writing, some of the stuff that I can’t stand doing so that I can focus on content creation, on marketing and leveraging that. So you have to really be willing to do that. And also, you know, stick to the fundamentals. You’ve got to be willing to find leads, pick up the phone, deliver your value proposition, ask for the sale, know how to how to create, need and want the client deal with objections, all those things. You’ve got to be a sales professional. And if you are unable to do it, the only way, the only way you will be able to scale your business and get those gigs is by hiring somebody that is going to be committed in your organization to make those calls for you to deliver that sales ability and to all work through a channel such as a speakers bureau who are in general, but also some are not going to be able to sell you the way you can sell yourself. You must you must be able to do that if you’re a speaker and you’re out there on a platform. If you can’t deliver that with competence, then how did that that’s a that’s a big deal. If you deliver it on a stage and you can’t talk on the phone, you better get some training and get some coaching to be better on the phone and find how to build your sales funnel and deliver your value and grow your business. It takes hard work and sweat and sacrifice, but sales are sales and you got to learn it, period.

Peter Winick So it’s hard work. It’s sales, it’s putting the effort in, it’s putting the energy. And I think it’s pretty obvious while you’re sort of top of your game here as we wrap this up today, what else would you ask people or suggest that people take a look at in terms of being able to continue to leverage and scale their business formats, assessment tools, whether it’s modalities or what are the other sort of things that you’re experimenting with to increase your revenue in a way that isn’t dependent on yet another speech because there’s only so many speeches one can do? So what are the other? The other lines of business that you’re looking at are the other ways to monetize the content.

Waldo Waldman And so, you know, this is extremely important. You know, selling digital products is is important, you know, consulting, coaching, etc.. You know, I have something called an Ace program. It stands for Accountability, Commitment and Execution, a weekly video series that that that I share with my clients who’ve hired me, you know, the great standing ovation, this and that. But what are you going to do to continuously move the needle on remain relevant new organization to sustain that that energy. So I, I developed this Ace program and once again, very simple execution weekly video. There’s a lot of coaching. I just had my first coaching client around eight months ago. A bank. Exactly. And we did a six month program. You know, he’s trying to take his game to the next level. So I think coaching, if you’re passionate about that and want to help move the needle for another person’s life, that’s great. I’m not doing that. I love I love helping others out. That’s a that’s a huge advantage. And also, you know, doing some consulting on site with a client, for example, a company land a frost or a big food manufacturer and packaged meats. We’re developing a content on how to shift their culture. They’ve got a lot of turnover in the plant. The workers, they need to create this, you know, vision 2022 vision. They’ve taken on Hillshire Brands, their biggest competitor. So how do we reduce their turnover? Get them more passionate about safety and winning. And so now I’m doing a couple of level layers deep with the program, doing away with Ted, our plants, etc.. So, you know, you can’t sell what you don’t offer. But this was brought up by the client who wanted more of my content and we really developed a great relationship and putting the proposal together. There’s tons you could do that, but be diligent about it. Get help from a wingman, a Peter Winick or somebody else who can help you come up with new ideas. Because when you leverage the relationships and this is a really key component in my success, the relationships that I built, I invested in, spent time with through mastermind groups to do the picking up the phone and helping people who now help me.

Peter Winick And you. And you’re not just picking up the phone when you need something. I mean, a real relationship is a real relationship. Nobody likes that guy or gal that you see there number popping up on your phone and like, they need something. Haven’t talked to them in a while. Right? Like, people are smarter than that. So as we wrap up here, while there’s a there was a ton in this program, but this was really chock full of stuff. How do people find you? Where do I get you know, I’m I want to learn more. I want to book you for keynote. I want to find you. Where do I do that?

Waldo Waldman Though. It’s my website your wingmen.com your wingman.com. And if you Google Waldo Waldman wingman or on the speaker or leadership you’ll find me I’m all over social media while a woman on Twitter and LinkedIn and all that stuff I’d love to connect with you there. So yeah, and that’s a that’s a big thing. You want to be Google all, you know, if somebody can’t find you on Google, it needs you probably aren’t out there and you’re relevant. You’re probably not writing. And the key thing folks fundamentals, writing, writing for associations on your blog, you know, get it connected out there. Internet marketing is important, but you need content. But make sure, especially when you’re when you hired a speaker or a coach or looking at somebody that you admire, Google that person learn about. Exactly. Know Tony Roberts and, you know, model, don’t mimic model what these folks are doing. Then differentiate yourself. Don’t be, you know, the same speaker or same coach that you see your competitor to do and create your own path, fly your own jet and just see too many people being copycats these days. And I think clients will pick that up. You need to.

Peter Winick When that was off. So I suggest you all take a look at your wingman.com. There’s lots to learn from the way the site is put together, the quality, the depth of content, the variety of modalities in terms of writing and videos and such. But this was awesome. I thank you so much, my friend, for coming on board and sharing so much of your wisdom with us today. This is fantastic. Thank you very much.

Waldo Waldman We had great fun, Peter. Take care.

Peter Winick To learn more about Thought Leadership Leverage, please visit our website at Thought Leadership Leverage dot com. To reach me directly. Feel free to email me at Peter at Thought Leadership Leverage dot com. And please subscribe to Leveraging Thought Leadership on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to get your weekly episode automatically.