[00:00:02] Speaker A: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: The time is near. You've given it hard, now get it in Gear.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, founder of Gear Media Studios podcast and content coach, Passage to Profit, co host and CMO at Gearhart Locke.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: That's a big list.
Welcome to Passage to Profit, everybody. Hey, everybody. The road to entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities about their business journeys in 2025. Showing up online isn't optional, it's survival. And Jess Toddfeld, Guinness world record holder and media strategist, is here to expose why so many smart leaders are underperforming and leaving opportunities on the table. Get ready to have everything you thought about media influence and presentations challenge. So welcome to the show, Jess. And you've said that presenting is always selling, whether it's a product, an idea, or yourself. Maybe you can break that down for our listeners and explain why so many leaders miss this.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: I think if we want more sales, we need to make more offers.
So it's even a slight little shift with the terminology, which is you're talking to somebody and they say, you know, ah, you know what I really need, I need to do this. Obviously, something that's within what you can provide, but you can make an offer and say, oh, hey, would you want, if I could help you with that and basically do X, Y and Z, would you want help with that? Oh, that, that would be great. And you don't have to have all the answers in that moment. You could put a proposal together or any, any of that, but you want to be putting out more offers. Many times as entrepreneurs, we have conversations and there's no offer or call to action. There's nothing else there. Maybe the offer is, hey, I know you have these clients that have X problem. Hey, if it ever comes up, I have Y solution and I could build in, you know, something for you to profit as well. But hey, keep that in mind. Is that something that would be helpful to you? It's always good to ask a question, but that's definitely something I think we can all do more of. And I think even tracking how many offers you made during a week, if you have conversations, it's a lost, a lost opportunity. If we don't make an offer in some way, even if it's, hey, I can help your people. Just keep it in mind. Oh, wow, okay. Maybe we can Work together.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Well, that's great. And then, so how does the media piece fit into that?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: You were just talking in the intro about people are.
It's like you're leaving media on the table. You're leaving an opportunity to get out and be out in front of other people. So in the old, old days, which is not that long ago, when I got first involved as a TV producer and I did a little bit of on air as well, there were really only certain choices as far as traditional media and getting the word out. Like, oh, man, if I could be written up in a. In an important magazine or local newspaper, or, oh, man, if I could just get on this national morning show, it would change everything for me. Well, now flash forward to 2025. Uh, oh, I just dated the show. But it works the same for 2026. And after, which is, everything's fragmented. The number one screen is our phone, and it didn't even exist not that long ago. And it's funny, if I watch a TV show from like 2015 or something, nobody's on their phones because they hadn't worked out. I mean, constantly, like, walking into traffic on their phone, they hadn't worked out the algorithm. So it doesn't. You don't need to get on that number one TV show anymore because less and less people are watching it. It used to be 6 million people were watching the Today show, and I used to say, yeah, well, what percentage are busy making breakfast for their kid or putting their kid on the school bus? And then of what's left, how many care about what you're talking about?
Now, like today, people who are tuning in are on the entrepreneurial path and are saying, oh, that's for me, and that's where we want to go. And where I'm walking up to is we actually have the ability to be the media.
And as traditional media is laying people off every single day, you see it in the news and shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. Well, the area of growth is, hey, I should own. Like the two of you are doing, I should own my own media property. And hey, I can let it grow. You can let it grow over time. In the beginning, yes.
Anything that you put out there, whether it's a blog or a newsletter or a podcast or a radio show, you name it. It's not going to have all of the eyes and ears that you're hoping for, but it will grow over time, and that's just what will happen. And ideally, especially if you get better and better at it.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Well, can I add something to that, Jess? I have done a deep dive into podcasting the last couple years, and I'm constantly researching and I'm constantly asking ChatGPT and some of the other LLMs, how can I show up here as an answer, how can I use my podcast to do that? And there are a lot of ways to do that. If you have a website, that's great. But as Jess was just saying, you need to have a lot of touch points on the Internet, right? Because these LLMs and Google even want to find you everywhere. So the more podcasts you go on, the more media you do, and especially if there's a transcription and a. TXT file, the more you're going to show up and the more hits your website.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Is going to get. Oh, yeah. And this is what we have to be paying attention to. And I know we're going to talk even later, even more about the AI angle, but it's so, so relevant, which is those are the questions that we need to be asking ChatGPT, or whatever your AI of choice is to figure out. I know when people reach out to work with me, either as consultant or with some of the other things you do, podcasting, wise people more and more are saying, oh, yeah, I found you through ChatGPT, which sometimes I have trouble recreating myself because it'll bring up, you know, competitors or other people. I'm like, no, chatgpt. Bad chatgpt should be me coming up. But I asked those questions, what do I need to do? And I talked about the TXT files and some of the other pieces, and that's it. You even said in the beginning, Elizabeth, about, you know, I'm doing, hey, we have more shows. It's for the LLMs. That's the way to get found and podcast. That's another secret of podcasting or being the media, which is. I remember in the early days of blogging, people saying, like, what am I, some guy in my basement, you know, writing all day long about what sandwich I ate? You know, who's going to read that? Google's reading it. Oh, wait, we got to do a blog. We got to do a podcast. That's right. This way you can be seen. That's the most important. And of course, we like it when people say, hey, I heard your podcast recently. I like what you said about Blank.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: I think it's important, too, to the extent that you can, in your niche, establish yourself as a thought leader. And being a thought leader means putting yourself out there, putting your opinions out there and about your subject professionally, and maybe a Little bit personally sometimes too. And the best way I think to do that now is through podcasting or videocasting through YouTube. I just really wonder who even reads anymore. And I'm in the legal profession, we write blogs and I really wonder how many people actually read those. I mean, we get some good feedback on them. I don't want to discourage, but the truth is, is that a lot of people are visual now or they, they want to listen while they're swimming laps in a pool or sweeping up the garage. That's when you can reach people and they're listening.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: The old phrase used to be, you know, that person's very well read. I had this conversation with my 25 year old son who I said, holy cow, I couldn't believe he knew about a bunch of topics that he's a second grade teacher. But he was talking to me about blockchain and about other AI topics. And I said, how did you find out about this? And he had said, you know, there's so many different ways you can consume media. He listened to a three hour deep dive podcast and he was thinking, oh, why should I care about this topic? Well, they did the deep dive and he did it on his commute to work over a bunch of days. And now it's like he's an expert where we would have said, wow, that person's so well read. There's so many ways. I still think it's nice to read, by the way, but there's so many ways to consume media and consume information.
I'll say one thing in defense of some books, which is presumably an author sat there and really parsed down over the span of many months or years to really give you something that has had a lot of iterations and thoughts, thought.
But I mean, we have access to the number one computer brain in the world that can do that in mere seconds and have a conversation back and forth with us. And I think it's malpractice if all of us as business leaders and entrepreneurs don't have that conversation every day. It's like a CPA who says I don't need to use a calculator, a spreadsheet. No, no, no, I do. I draw the lines. No, that'd be silly. It'd just be as crazy.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: We're with Jess Todfeld, who's the founder of Media Ambassadors, and early in the show we mentioned that you're a Guinness World Record holder for publicity. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about that story.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yes. Some people are like, what is that about? Is it the longest fingernails? Is it eating the most spaghetti? It's neither of those two, thankfully, but it's in a media and communication category. So I was promoting a book. I have some books on media and some on speaking and spoken communications. And it was a book called Secret to Foolproof Presentations.
And I had a public relations friend who said, well, you're the media guy, I hope you do this book push bigger than anyone. So I laughed and said, yeah, I'm going to totally. I don't know what that means, but yeah, I'm all in. I don't know what I'm agreeing to. And so he said, well, how about Guinness Record Big? I laughed and said, sure, what is that? And basically we looked it up. There was a category of being interviewed the most times in 24 hours. It was previously held by the band Fall Out Boy. And I was like, is that a thing? With 72 interviews that they did in a 24 hour span, it was just before Zoom. So it had to be on radio and I've done quite a bit of TV in print, but it had to be on radio. So it was 112 different radio interviews, different stations, had to be five minutes longer, longer, all this stuff. So it's a wonderful thing I continue to get to hang my hat on since 2009. And I appreciate you bringing it up, but what I always say to certainly to clients and people I support is, hey, I was willing to put myself in the hot seat and continue to today even instead of just like, you know, I'm going to tell you what to do based on stuff from, you know, 20 plus years ago.
No, it should be based on five minutes ago of, hey, I went on Passage to Profit. And guess what I thought of in the moment? Oh, you can do this too. You should be thinking about, I mean, what would I say after today? I would say give as much value, value, value as you can and then give some sort of call to action later of like, oh, hey, I do blank, you should reach out or hey, I'll give you a free item on something. That would be my advice. But we're still in the moment of give, give.
[00:11:30] Speaker C: I still like it a lot better the way you did it in your talk that's on one of your websites. I watched that whole thing. I was telling him, I started watching it just to see who he was because I go to YouTube and look for everybody that's coming on the show and luckily everybody had videos.
But he did this incredible presentation and it was edited and produced this video is beyond amazing. Which website is that on, Jeff?
[00:11:50] Speaker A: That would be on my speaker site, Jess Toddfeld, with the silent T and my last name. But I think Google figures out if you misspell it, but possibly there are a couple of things I mentioned which was give to give instead of worrying about and you shall receive, give to give, give and like, put plant enough of those seeds out there instead of being like, ah, I need something today.
You know, those people want to help you at some point, But I think you liked the teriyaki chicken approach.
[00:12:17] Speaker C: I did like the teriyaki chicken approach because everybody that's ever been to a mall with a food court can identify with that. Right?
[00:12:26] Speaker A: That's it. And I think I. That's what made you think of it when I said, like, give away something for free. So this is the free item. So everybody get ready. Roll up your sleeves if you're listening. Which is so if you've ever been to a mall and there's less and less of them, that's another conversation. But when you walk past the food court, you know, you're trying to buy gifts for people, there's some guy standing with a plate of teriyaki chicken with a bunch of toothpicks in it. And you're. No, I'm trying to rush to get to Macy's to get away. Oh, what is that? No, I already. Well, maybe I'll just have one. So you take the free sample and you're like, all right, I got to get about. That's kind of good. What happens five minutes later? You're sitting there eating teriyaki chicken. I didn't even think I wanted it. I thought I was full. No, no. Apparently I'm hungry for teriyaki chicken. So the free sample, when you know, all of us, as I'm saying that, your mouths are watering, possibly. What's your free sample? What's something you can give away that is worthy? You know, sometimes people say, you know, I'll give a chapter in my book. Maybe that that's it. But maybe it's something that is some sort of quick solution to what somebody is dealing with at that moment where they're like, oh, wow, that's exactly what I need. And, wow, if you solved my problem with that, what else do you have? Or how can I work with you in a bigger way? So the. The secret is something kind of, you know, small that. Where they can get a quick hit of. Oh, that worked. Yeah. Teriyaki chicken approach. Try it, everybody. Make sure you have free stuff to give away.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: We're speaking with Jess Todfeld, Guinness world record holder, media expert and founder of Media Ambassadors. I have a question. And for people who feel like they don't have time or aren't naturally inclined to be in media, maybe they don't feel like they're good on camera. What's your advice for overcoming that fear and showing up?
[00:14:22] Speaker A: I would say the same thing if they said, I'm not really that good with being on the computer, I'm not really that good with email. I'm not really that good with marketing and sales.
Guess what? Get good at it, right? It's like if somebody put on their resume, I don't know how to use Microsoft Word. We'll learn how to use it, figure it out. This is the moment we live in where these are all skills that we need to have. And when we say media, to me media is a, is much, much different at this moment in time. It's not just mass traditional media like it used to be. Tv, print, radio, it's everything. It's. Yes, it's social media. Oh, I don't want to do social media. We'll figure out how you can do it. And I'll tell you, for somebody who not only was a TV producer, but also I've done some reporting and I've done some level of hosting prior to doing a podcast and other stuff. I don't love doing stuff every single day. Okay, well then I need to batch what I put together. I need to just do a whole bunch at once and then ideally have an editor and somebody else who's putting it where it needs to go. And it's usually a combination of tools to get it to show up. That's the way it's going to work for me. I'd rather be in the moment at a dinner than pull out my phone and say like, oh, we have to do a thing, we have to get content. Oh no, you gotta say that again. I just know that's not gonna work for me. But I can record 15 things on a Monday and have it be good for two weeks. That'll work out just fine. So I hope it's tough love for people out there. You have to get good at it.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: I always tell people too. Look, first of all, everybody hates themselves on video. I don't care who they are, but everybody's doing it.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: But why do you think that is?
[00:16:06] Speaker C: I think we're so self critical.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: I think you're exposing yourself though. And if you don't get the reaction that you want or you think you would like to have, then it's a downer.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: You're right. I think that's about as exposed as you can be. No one wants to be exposed as not being perfect. And whatever lane you choose, tv, print, I mean, I should say video, print, radio, you're not going to be great in the beginning. And Elizabeth, I think a lot of people don't like their voice partly because we normally hear it through the bones in our head. We actually hear a slightly distorted version.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: So.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: So when we hear it on a recording, like, ah, I don't like my voice. Well, guess what? Most people hear it and 99% of people is totally fine. And that's okay. And as far as video, it's actually better to look like, I think, a regular normal person. But all of us today in that category, I guess if you're somebody who looks like a, you know, fashion model, okay, fine. But I think we interact with people, look like normal people all day. I'd rather my lawyer look like a lawyer and not look like, I don't know, Brad Pitt or whoever, who, Timothy shall think, who's the younger version of that and just be able to have that conversation. So yes, we should get over it.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Part of it is though, that the media establishes expectations. And so movies, for example, are so heavily produced. Multiple camera angles, multiple shots, airbrushing, airbrushing heavily, heavy editing, sound effects added in. They work on it until it is perfect.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: And there's a mirage.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: It's a mirage. Normal people can't do that without a lot of expense and time. It just doesn't work.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: But what I say to people too is, first of all, I think perfection is boring.
Secondly, like, when I think about who I'm friends with, I don't want perfect friends because I'm not perfect.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: And I don't think you can relate to people if you're trying to be so high above them and be so perfect.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: That's it. And just realizing that we don't need to be perfect media wise, we don't need to be perfect in everything we do. Business wise, obviously we want to do right by the people that are paying us to work with them. And we're going to do as good a job as we can. But I mean, there'll be other areas. We're not perfect, but that's it. And I think we have to use that as a strategy to, to realize. Now, having said that, there is a barrage of we, you know, our social media feeds, everybody's, you know, so much younger than us or Good looking, better looking and better this, better that. And yes, there are filters. I mean, I didn't put it on today, but I also have some. I like to call it TV makeup, but it. It's makeup. I don't know. I have to call it TV makeup, but it's makeup. And guess what? I look a little bit better. And occasionally my wife will see me on a webinar or something and she'll message me from elsewhere and say, raccoon eyes, question mark. Which is a problem that I sometimes have. And I'm like, I didn't put on the thing beforehand. So there are some things that we can do to make it just a tiny bit better so that we feel a little bit better.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Can I say with that, Jess?
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: There is a touch up feature in Zoom.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: And I have that cranked to the max, so you all look really good right now.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: And my webcam comes with another little program where you can tweak some of those things. I have it tweaked just a little bit. If I go too far, then I look like I'm 12 and then nobody will want to work with me. So we have to find the like.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Right next to the final message of this segment is just do it. Go on video. You're not as horrible as you think.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: That's it. Just do it. You'll see better things that will happen. And I'll say this in 10 seconds. I helping other people with podcasts. And somebody said, jess, why don't you have your podcast? And I was like, I guess I should do it. Two weeks in, people started pitching me and I pitching me CEOs that I would have really liked to talk to. And I realized, wait, I'm the media, so some magic can really happen. People should go, just do it.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: It really can. So, Jess, how can people get ahold of you?
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Go to mediaambassadors.com or on LinkedIn or just Google.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the U.S. thank you to the P2P team. Our producer, Noah Fleishman, and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey, our studio assistant, Risa Kat Bussari, and our social media powerhouse, Carolina Tabares. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts, Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. We'll see you again next week on Passage to Profit.
