June 26, 2025 • 34 mins
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What's the secret to taking five companies public and raising over $100 million? According to Jorge Olson, it all comes down to personal branding—a philosophy he's refined across decades as an executive marketer, brand expert, and serial entrepreneur.
From his earliest days studying influence as a 12-year-old to becoming a VP of Marketing by 27, Olson reveals the counter-intuitive strategies that have fueled his success across multiple industries. His journey began in software before a strategic pivot to beverages, where he recognized the power of selling products people buy daily. "When I did the math, I realized people go into a 7-Eleven and buy coffee, Monster, or Coca-Cola every day," Olson explains. This observation became the foundation for building his beverage empire.
At the heart of Olson's approach lies a radical philosophy about failure. "F is for fabulous, not for failure," he insists, challenging conventional wisdom about entrepreneurial setbacks. By openly sharing his mistakes—from growing up without running water to his early business struggles—Olson creates authentic connections that transform into business opportunities. This vulnerability, rather than projecting an image of flawless success, becomes the cornerstone of what he calls "Marketing Karma."
The results speak for themselves. Olson describes clients who approach him saying, "I already know who you are, I already know what you're about. I feel I kno
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:02):
Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry's leadingnews source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again, and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your Gary Pageau, and todaywe're joined by Jorge Olson,
who is a longtime businessleader, executive marketer,
brand expert.
He's taken five companiespublic and he's coming to us
from San Diego, California,today.
Hi Jorge, how are you today?
Jorge Olson (00:37):
I am wonderful, Gary.
How are you?
Gary Pageau (00:39):
I'm doing great.
So let's talk a little bit,before we get started, about
your business journey, how yougot started in business, because
you started at a very young age.
Jorge Olson (00:49):
Yes, I actually started studying influence when
I was 12 years old.
I took it seriously at 16.
And I realized that influencetransferred into economics or
business.
It's called marketing and Isaid, really, people pay me for
this.
So I transitioned from justinfluence to specifically
(01:12):
influence in the marketplace ormarketing.
I was lucky enough to havementors and made it to an
executive position at the age of27, vice president of marketing
and then from there I stayed ata C-level until I became an
entrepreneur.
Gary Pageau (01:32):
Okay, and you've written a few books along the
lines too Quite a few.
Jorge Olson (01:36):
Yes, my first published book was Build your
Beverage Empire 15 years ago.
It's now in its third edition.
My latest book is MarketingKarma.
And then I've done maybe sixbusiness books, a few fiction
books, and I've helpedentrepreneurs.
(01:58):
I've helped 10 entrepreneurs asa co-writer.
Gary Pageau (02:01):
So I have maybe 15 books so far as a co-writer, so
I have maybe 15 books so far Now.
Were you always in the beverageindustry as part of your
background, and what attractedyou to that?
Jorge Olson (02:13):
Sure, I started in software.
This was ERP softwareeverything a company needs and
the software was a milliondollars plus and it was for the
food industry accounting,production, logistics, sales,
marketing, the whole shebang.
Right After that I transitionedinto wholesale distribution as
(02:34):
an entrepreneur and I addedbeverages as one of my products.
I liked it because of the terms.
You could sell a lot ofbeverages and I was selling on
my own.
I was producing my own products1,000 fast-moving consumer
goods I've developed, andelectronics, pet supplies,
things you only buy once.
(02:55):
And then when I did the math, Isaid what am I doing?
I need to do something thatpeople will buy every day.
And I saw that people go into a7-Eleven and they buy coffee
every day, or they buy Monsterevery day, or they buy Coca-Cola
every day.
And I said, okay, that's my newme.
And I used the same strategiesthat I used to become an
(03:18):
industry expert in software tobecome an industry expert in the
beverage industry.
Gary Pageau (03:24):
Okay.
So you were kind of selective.
It wasn't like you had a bigyearning to, you know, be in the
beverage industry, as much asyou saw that that was an
opportunity you can make animpact in because you understood
the buying cycle of itPrecisely, precisely.
So you've been involved withfive companies when you came
down to like leave companies orsell companies, or you've taken
(03:47):
a couple of public.
I believe you know how doesthat actually?
I think you've taken fivepublic.
Yes, is that something that youthink that you're kind of wired
as an entrepreneur just to kindof start something, create it,
take it to a point of story andthen move on?
Jorge Olson (04:05):
create it, take it to a point of story and then
move on.
Yes, I think, as anentrepreneur, we have the option
when we start a business.
If you tell me that you want tostart a business right now, I
would ask you what is the exit?
From the first day we just met,you tell me your idea and I say
what is the exit?
Now you might say you know,this is a passion project.
I don't really want to exit.
(04:26):
It's kind of a hobby that Itransitioned into a business.
Perfectly fine, I have plentyof those as well.
However, if it's a business youwant to scale, if it's a
business that you want to growand you want to grow it fast, I
always say money gives you speed.
That means investment andinvestors want an exit.
(04:49):
This is why it takes you toeither selling the company which
I've sold a couple withoutgoing public, or taking it
public.
This way you can continue toraise capital.
You can buy other companies andmaybe sell a little stock
yourself.
Gary Pageau (05:05):
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about you know
kind of how that relates to mymarket, because in our industry,
you know we've got a widevariety of different kind of
companies.
Right, you've got people whoare in you know AI startups and
doing things, and there's otherpeople who are among the
listeners of this, who are, youknow, maybe second or third
generation businesses in theindustry maybe a camera store or
(05:26):
school photo company and youknow their model was to pass it
along in the family and you knowas things change, you know
maybe they've had to changetheir exit plan or whatever.
Can you talk a little bit aboutyou know when the market
changed, how you may have toadapt your exit strategy?
Jorge Olson (05:46):
Sure, if you're're an ai company I'm on the board
of directors of an ai company.
That just happens to be visualeffects, and of course it's it's
going to have an exit.
Before it was a family businessand it was run as a family
business for 15 years.
Okay, and they have to adaptbecause what they do, which is
(06:08):
3D for aerospace.
They told me he's my friend andthey told me I think we're
going to be out of a job in twoyears.
And I said two years seems anawful long time.
I think more like two or threemonths.
So they said and they're verysmart and they're programmers as
well, not just visual artistsor designers.
(06:29):
They do a lot of photography,videography and mostly 3D
animation.
And I told them let's hit yourclients, which is Boeing and
these big companies forinvestment and position yourself
for an exit so that they'rehappy as well.
So this is an example of how atraditional let's say, 3d or
(06:51):
designer company is adaptingwith artificial intelligence,
raising capital, surviving butthen positioning themselves for
an exit.
Let's say that you have afamily business.
My first wholesale distributioncompany was a family business.
I bought it and I grew it.
I also grew tired of it becauseit's a lot of hands on.
(07:15):
I was in the warehouse all thetime, getting dirty with dust
and moving things, hurting myback, things like that and I
said, okay, I'm over this.
I want to do the beveragesright.
I want to do beverageconsulting and help companies
scale.
I don't want to wash trucks andvisit 7-Elevens and Circle K's.
So I said I need to exit.
(07:38):
I didn't just want to leave thecompany and let it go because
it was selling, it wassuccessful and it was making me
a full-time income.
What I did at that time is Imade sure that I had systems.
First of all, if a new owneroperator is coming to the
business and they have no ideawhat to do, you're both in
(07:59):
trouble.
But if they come into abusiness and you have systems
for everything and now it's easywith computers Back then it
wasn't so easy.
You had to record everything,write everything down, take
screenshots of everything, noSOP software like today.
So I would encourage thesesmall business owners to develop
(08:20):
systems for accounting, forsales scripts, a list of their
customers, pricing, how to buyproduct.
Once they have their systems,they can put their company up
for sale.
There's a lot of differentwebsites that allow you to list
your company for free and theytake a commission from the sale,
(08:41):
right?
Gary Pageau (08:42):
Now most businesses don't sell right.
I mean, that's one of theproblems that people have when
they experience selling theirbusinesses.
I think some people say it's ashigh as 80% of businesses that
are listed for sale don'tactually sell right, and I think
part of it is because of whatyou just said.
People don't have a businessthat's actually transferable
(09:05):
right, they don't have theprocesses in place, they don't
have the documentation in place,because it may have just been
like we've always done it thatway and here, just buy my store
and move on.
So I think you've hit on agreat point, and actually I've
had other people on the podcasttalk about business sales to do
that.
But I don't want to talk justabout business sales.
I also want to talk about kindof building your personal brand,
because that's something thatyou've been focusing on in the
(09:27):
last few years and how that kindof helps your overall business
is building your personal brand.
Jorge Olson (09:37):
Yes, all of these companies that.
I've sent public.
I've raised over $100 million.
It's all through personalbranding, everything Since I
received, or I got, my first joband then I ascended to vice
president, I did it withpersonal branding.
My second job, which was vicepresident of business
development for a projectmanagement software, personal
branding the way I started mywholesale business.
(09:58):
I positioned myself as awholesale expert.
I even wrote a book on it.
Beverages same thing.
Position myself as an expert.
If you want to sell yourbusiness, position yourself as
an expert.
If you want to fund yourbusiness, if you want customers,
if you want anything, positionyourself first.
Now, this is the issue.
(10:19):
Most small businesses want toseem larger, so they hide behind
the logo because they see othercompanies doing that, like
Coca-Cola, pepsi-cola.
Because they see othercompanies doing that, like
Coca-Cola, pepsi-cola.
And if you go to a master'sprogram, an MBA, they will give
you all of these case studiesfrom fortune companies.
(10:40):
Well, guess what?
We are not fortune companies,so they would have to teach us
how those companies started inorder for us to understand how
to scale.
And they all started withpersonal branding.
Nowadays, personal branding ismore popular because we see some
of the largest companies,especially in technology, where
(11:01):
the CEOs are on TikTok YouTubeconstantly, so you associate
ChatGPT, nvidia, microsoft andApple and all of these big
companies with the person.
Back in the day, that wasn't athing when I was a kid.
It is now, so it's much easierto explain to people what they
(11:22):
need to do instead of, let's sayI used to see this a lot people
would open a linkedin profileand put the logo instead of
their picture.
Gary Pageau (11:31):
Right, yeah, you don't see that so much anymore.
Jorge Olson (11:33):
But absolutely so.
This is the beginning ofpersonal branding.
You are the brand.
Gary Pageau (11:39):
Right, so what do you mean by personal branding?
I mean, obviously we know whatbranding is.
What are some of the attributesyou think that you can actually
put forth that are useful inpersonal branding?
Because everyone's is going tobe different, right?
Because not everyone can be thesame.
Jorge Olson (11:55):
That's exactly right.
I think there's two majorpoints that everybody, no matter
what the business, would needto focus on.
The first one is your industry.
Whatever your industry isphotography, videography or AI
or any other business is youneed to position yourself as an
expert, first in that industry.
(12:16):
I did it by writing.
Now I do it with a lot ofvideos.
I still write.
My goal is a book a year.
However, social media helps mea lot because even if I'm not
writing a book, I can do threeor four videos and if I'm
eloquent and I know what I'mtalking about, people will see
it and they will call me.
Without reading the book.
(12:36):
They would just say I saw yourvideo.
I like how you speak.
I think I know you now becauseI developed a report through the
video.
Sure, let me call you.
So your personal brand startswith your industry and then
thought leader.
Now what does that mean?
Because I see this used a lot.
Gary Pageau (12:54):
Yeah, it's kind of overused actually.
Jorge Olson (12:56):
It's overused.
And back when we were doingbranding, what it used to mean
was where you are outside ofyour industry.
For example, if your industryis photography and you're doing
videos on editing or buyingequipment or maybe even which
lens to buy next, that would beindustry right, industry related
(13:20):
.
But then if you step a littlebit out of that, maybe you went
on vacation, you still take yourcamera, you're still taking
pictures, pictures but thenmaybe you talk about the view
and what it means to you andwhat it?
means for you to, to travel,that to have the time and the
money and the energy and thehealth to travel, and you
meditate on it.
(13:40):
Now you're a thought leaderbecause you're thinking.
You have mindfulness behind it,right?
So let's take the wordmindfulness and put it into an
external view.
You're externalizing yourmindfulness in an article, in a
video, in a blog post, in aLinkedIn post.
I think that's what being athought leader means to me in
(14:04):
personal branding.
Now why would we do that?
Because you can't hit everybodywith the industry all the time.
You need to establish anemotional relationship with your
customers, and just talkingabout specs is not going to do
it.
You need to go inside for that.
Gary Pageau (14:22):
Right, I guess the challenge I think some people
would have is maybe this, beinga subject matter expert, which
is what you're talking about isall they're suited for.
Maybe they're not much of athought leader right, I mean not
everyone can be.
You know a philosopher, right,so is that okay just to be in
your area and be an expert in?
(14:43):
You know which lens to pick?
Jorge Olson (14:46):
Absolutely, it can be local.
I can be in San Diego and takemy camera and go out.
I like restaurants, I likerooftop bars, because I'm in San
Diego so I can go and do somereviews with photography on
these bars, but then I can talkabout how cool it is to go out.
So now you're hitting both.
(15:07):
You're hitting the photographyand you're hitting the equipment
and, of course, what it meansto you.
What's going to happen ispeople are going to start
reaching out to you.
Can you come and photograph myplace?
They'll give you free food,free drinks and, pretty soon,
money as well.
So this is a very localized wayof gaining influence in your
(15:28):
community, being a pillar ofyour community, and then people
looking out for you and we'renot for everybody, but you're
going to resonate with somebody.
That's the client that we want.
We want the clients thatappreciate us, because that
means they're going to come back, they're not going to negotiate
price and they're going toprepay, which is what I like.
Gary Pageau (15:52):
So how do you keep the creative piece of it alive?
Right, because you know mostpeople think they've got one or
two like statements or what haveyou.
But you got to keep this alive,you got to keep reinventing.
You know your viewpoints andyour in your content.
How do you?
How do you do that?
Jorge Olson (16:09):
Yes, I think that's an incredible, incredible
question, and everybody isdifferent In my world.
I grew up in creativity.
No business, no money.
Was discussed in my house Art,literature, philosophy.
I had 10,000 books in my nomoney, but 10,000 books in my
house, so it was all aboutcreativity.
(16:32):
I studied art, not business.
So everything that I do, I doit from a creative point of view
, from a storytelling point ofview.
The first thing that I wouldsay is if you want to be more
creative, what are you puttinginside of your head?
(16:53):
For example, are you onlyreading business books or are
you also reading novels andstories and things that have to
do with creativity and fiction?
One of my friends, which has avery successful marketing
company branding and marketingcompany, more visuals than
anything else called me one timeat 12 o'clock at night and he
(17:17):
was in a panic and he told me Ilost my creativity, I don't know
what to do, I'm not creative,they're going to fire me.
And he was in a panic.
I was up at that time and Isaid well, let's start with the
simple things.
What are you reading?
And he listed five businessbooks off the top of his set and
(17:38):
I said what about fiction?
Well, I don't read fiction.
Okay.
What movies are you looking at?
Well, I don't watch movies.
Okay.
How about Netflix?
Or documentaries?
I said okay.
The answer is it's so simple,you're not going to believe it.
Read novels, go watch sciencefiction and fantasy films or
(18:02):
programs, and then you're goingto have an overload of
creativity.
Your brain is going to startbeing reprogrammed and it's
going to start talking theseideas oh my God, I like that
dragon.
Maybe I can do a logo about adragon or a story.
Or my client needs something.
(18:22):
I'm going to do a spiff on Gameof Thrones for his next
campaign.
So then he called me a week noteven a month after, a week
after and said so.
Then he called me a week noteven a month after, a week after
and said that was a quick fix.
How did you do that?
And that's because you'refilling your brain with numbers.
Gary Pageau (18:40):
Well, the thing is is your brain needs to build new
pathways all the time.
That's what needs to happen.
Jorge Olson (18:47):
Exactly.
And then I would take itfurther Write, write Whatever
you can write Fiction, a story,your further Write.
Write whatever you can writefiction, a story, your story.
Write a sales letter, justwrite.
The act of writing isphenomenal for building
creativity.
Draw, I can't draw, that's fine.
I can't draw either, and I drawevery day.
(19:08):
I have a goal of drawingsomething, even if it's in a
little notebook like this onethat I have in front of me, that
I call some mushrooms and thisis a pocketbook, right, because
I said I need to be creative.
I'm going to draw something andthen pretty soon, my brain is
filled with creativity and Ihave to record myself because I
(19:29):
have an idea for a novel and allof these other things.
So yes you're absolutely right.
We need these new connections,these new neural pathways, to be
bridges and tunnels andhyper-connected with each other,
Because what people don't getis that once you build these
(19:50):
connections, you can use themfor whatever you want not just
for creativity.
You can use them for whateveryou want for business, for
numbers, for memory.
So build those pathways.
Gary Pageau (20:01):
When you're looking at building your personal brand
, what are common mistakespeople make with it?
Jorge Olson (20:09):
Oh, yes, the first mistake is wanting to associate
with the business from the start.
Say this is my name and this iswhat I do.
Think of when you're networkingand you introduce yourself to
somebody.
Or think of it when you go onan airplane and somebody's
sitting next to you, they havetheir headphones ready and they
(20:31):
don't want to be bothered.
They have a movie queued up.
You say I'm not going to botherthis person because obviously
it's a five-hour trip.
Maybe I used to go to New Yorkto visit investment bankers once
every other week.
So five, six hours on the plane.
But you want to be polite andcourteous and you introduce
(20:52):
yourself with your name, right,hey, this is my name, that's it.
Yourself with your name, right,hey, this is my name, that's it
.
But then maybe they say this ismy name and they say what do
you do for a living?
And maybe I say I say thecompany's public and raise the
money.
And then I see the headphonesgo down and they say their
laptop closes and then theyposition their body where their
(21:13):
torso is facing me and they saytell me all about it.
Gary Pageau (21:17):
Right.
Jorge Olson (21:18):
And I go.
What happened to your movie?
I didn't mention the company, Ididn't mention anything else,
but I know, I know what's goingto be a trigger and it's a
solution.
Right, I help people writebooks.
If you're in the visualindustry, I have people position
themselves as industry leaders,starting with their portrait.
(21:40):
I take power portraits ofpeople so they look even better
than how they look at themselves.
These are all ways that you canposition yourself.
Now you need to turn that intoa headline.
Gary Pageau (21:56):
Okay.
Jorge Olson (21:56):
Think of the, of the who cares, right, you,
you're sitting and do thisexercise in your brain.
I actually teach this exercisewhen I'm doing keynote speeches.
I tell people to do thisexercise for real, to write it
down.
You're in an airplane.
What's going to make you say,okay, good, and then you can put
your headphones on and what'sgoing to make you say, okay,
good, and then you put yourheadphones on and what's going
to make you go?
What I was just looking for?
(22:19):
That I write books.
Oh, my God, I have a dream ofwriting a book.
How can I do it?
How did you do it?
Those are all headlines thatget over the who cares.
And then people see you forsomething else, not just a brand
, not just a logo, not just acompany, but somebody who has a
(22:40):
story.
Gary Pageau (22:41):
Right.
Jorge Olson (22:42):
It's all about the story.
Our brain is wired for 250,000years to learn, communicate and
build rapport through stories.
We forget that, so you need totell a story.
In this case, this was more ofan elevator pitch, right, you
tell a story in one sentence,but then you expand, you take
(23:03):
that expansion and you reallywork on it.
It's not just that you write itand forget it.
You write it and then you writeit again.
Maybe you get an editor, maybeyou ask AI to help you with it.
You write it and then you writeit again.
Maybe you get an editor, maybeyou ask AI to help you with it.
Take it and then you use it onyour LinkedIn headline.
You use it on your emails, youuse it when you speak with
(23:24):
people, you use it on yourbusiness card.
You use it all the time.
And this is how you avoid themistake of'm a lawyer.
I'm a photographer.
I have a photography store,right, yeah, that's not sexy
right, it's interesting.
Gary Pageau (23:43):
So there's a lot of like self-evaluation there,
because you have to be reallytruthful with yourself.
Right, because you because partof what you're talking about is
you've got to be authentic withyour branding.
I mean, you can't beoverselling yourself or saying
something that's truthful.
So you have to be at leastself-aware enough to know what
your strengths are and maybewhat your limitations are.
Jorge Olson (24:06):
Gary, that's exactly right, and let me tell
you, speaking of stories, let metell you a quick story.
When I was doing a lot ofkeynote speaking, my mom would
go when I was speaking locallyin San Diego or even in Tijuana,
on the other side of the border, because I speak Spanish, and
she would hate it that I alwaystold the audience every mistake
(24:28):
that I've made.
Why do you need to go up thereand tell people that you failed
in this and that you're bad atthat?
So many mistakes?
And because number one, it'sthe truth, right, and I'm not
afraid of making mistakes.
I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid of failure.
I hated that in school you havean F for failure.
(24:48):
In Mexico, where I went toschool, you it's 10-point system
, right, you get a 10, which is100% like an A, and then it goes
down, but no failure.
They don't use that word.
In many countries they don'tuse that word.
We start teaching kids, futureentrepreneurs, that failing is
(25:09):
bad, failing is fabulous.
F is for fabulous, not forfailing.
So I think failure, it's thequickest way to success.
Fall and fall forward.
Learn, of course.
Read right, read a lot, learnfrom others, learn from their
mistakes, learn not to makethose mistakes, even if you just
(25:31):
read it.
That's an incredible skill whenyou can not make the mistakes
of case studies that you read.
But you're going to have to tryit and you're going to have to
fail.
And being authentic, as you said, is key, including telling your
audience, your customers, aboutyour failures.
Maybe that's the most importantpart.
(25:52):
One of my mentors, which is avery famous copywriter, dan
Kennedy.
I was the chief marketingofficer for his company for some
time and he used to get onstage and said he was a
recovering alcoholic, right.
And then somebody asked him whydo you do it?
And he said because I get everyformer alcoholic is client,
(26:16):
just like that.
Because they get it.
The other people don't seem tocare, so they don't hold it
against me.
He said so why not?
And it's the truth, right, it'sthe truth.
So, yes, you're absolutelyright, being authentic is
important.
When you're right, write aboutyour failures, your hero's
journey.
When you write, write aboutyour failures, your hero's
journey, which is the way that Iwould like everybody to
(26:37):
position your personal brand asa hero's journey, where you are
the hero first, but you turninto the sage, magician, jedi,
whatever you want to say.
And then your customer is thehero in the hero's journey.
Erin Manning (26:52):
The hero fails Right Hero fails in every
movie's journey.
Jorge Olson (26:55):
The hero fails Right.
The hero fails In every movie,every book, every story the hero
fails, so talk about yourfailures.
Write about your failures.
People will love you for it.
Gary Pageau (27:07):
So your latest book is about selling without
selling.
Can you just kind of touch onthat, Because when I read that I
was like that it's a veryinteresting approach, and what
do you mean by that?
Jorge Olson (27:21):
All right.
So let's start with the resultsthat you might get, which is
the results that I get, and itgoes something like this
Somebody calls me on the phoneand says I already know who you
are before I can speak.
I already know who you arebefore I can speak.
I already know who you are, Ialready know what you're about.
I feel I know you, I know howmuch you charge.
Here's my credit card.
(27:43):
You can charge it.
So they prepay, they don'tnegotiate, they appreciate me
and my time and the value that Iprovide.
I don't have to explain it.
So that's the result.
That's what we all wantCustomers that are high-end
customers, they don't give meproblems, they don't complain
(28:04):
and they give me the credit cardup front.
Now, how do you get there?
Right, that was the point.
I call it marketing karma.
And I got there.
And you get there by sharinginformation and giving value, by
being authentic, talking aboutyour problems and your failures,
like we talked about, andtelling your story, while
(28:27):
providing value in that story,in other words, not features and
benefits a story.
For example, I grew up inTijuana with no running water
and no electricity and I made itto vice president at 27,
retired my mom and my grandmawho worked all day.
They knocked doors to sellbusiness cards and printed
(28:49):
material and I called them withmy first check and I said we're
rich.
We weren't, but I thought wewere rich, called the electrical
company and put someelectricity, we're rich.
Right, it was.
That was my greatest trauma.
That moment for me is the mostimportant moment in my business
career and I sent I was workingin Germany and I sent 50% of my
(29:14):
check to my mom and my grandmaand we all live with that 50%.
They could live with the 50% inMexico and I could live with my
50% in Germany.
I had a company, car andapartment.
That helped a lot.
That's one of my origin storiesthat I just told you in a
minute.
It usually takes a wholekeynote, but I just told, just
told you in a minute.
(29:34):
It usually takes a wholekeynote, but I just told it to
you in a minute.
So I start with that and that'spart of the story that I give.
When I tell the story, ofcourse I say how I did it and
how I got there, and the personwho hired me was my marketing
karma.
I couldn't get a job.
(29:54):
I graduated from San Diego State.
I lived in Tijuana and commuteddaily and I had this thing,
which is cultural and you learnat home, like in the deep south,
which you're nice to everybody,right, and I invited everybody
home and I invited everybody outand I invited everybody home
(30:14):
and I invited everybody out andI was teaching at a language
school and I got internationalstudents that were flying from
all over the world to San Diego.
Later I found out to play golf,not to learn the language, but
because the company paid.
They went to learn the languageand I taught doing business in
Spanish and doing business inEnglish for minimum wage.
(30:37):
But I saw it as an opportunityto meet people and my classes
were something like oh, you'rethe CEO of Deloitte Touche, tell
me all about it.
And then I would shut up andjust listen to their life story
and learn from them.
So I said, oh my God, they'repaying me to learn from these
Fortune 500 CEOs.
That's fantastic.
(30:58):
And then I would say, want togo to Tijuana and meet some good
Mexican?
They would say yeah, so I wouldtake them out, I would show
them all over San Diego, allover Tijuana.
I never expected anything tocome of it except for friendship
, but that's not the way karmaworks.
Karma doesn't care whether youwant something or not.
(31:19):
It's going to give it to you.
If you have karma coins, let'ssay Right, of course.
What happens was one of theseguys said you know what?
You're the kind of guy that Iwant in my team.
You do everything over the top.
You treat me with so much loveand respect and you just met me.
If I had 10 guys like you in myteam, I would rock.
(31:41):
So you're going to come live inGermany.
Gary Pageau (31:44):
I couldn't find a job right.
Jorge Olson (31:47):
You have a job guaranteed.
You don't have to apply.
You already went through theinterview process, which was
going out to eat tacos and sometequila in Tijuana.
He hired me and he was my firstbig mentor who helped me get to
six figures in my twenties vicepresident, then CEO, then
(32:08):
entrepreneur, et cetera and itwas all because I was nice.
Now, okay, I prepared myselfbefore.
I read a book a day, but a lotof people do that.
A lot of people are preparedand study and have the
experience and fall, but they'remissing the marketing, karma,
part of heart, the kindness thatyou need towards others so that
(32:33):
you can accumulate this worldof good faith where people that
you want.
Right, because now you willattract the right person to give
you an opportunity a client, itcan be a mentor, it can be a
supplier, it can be a friend, itcan be an investor as well.
(32:54):
So that's the way I did it.
And that's the way I do it tothis day.
Gary Pageau (32:59):
And you've done it multiple times, multiple times
across multiple industries.
So where can people go for moreinformation to learn about
Marketing, karma and all yourvarious stories you have to tell
, sure?
Jorge Olson (33:15):
I have free webinars and newsletters because
it's karma right and they cango to jorge orisoncom,
j-o-r-g-e-o-l-s-o-ncom.
Subscribe to my newsletter andthen they will get my frameworks
, my webinars, everything that Ihave.
Gary Pageau (33:36):
They'll get everything Nice Well.
Thank you, murray, it's beengreat to meet you, and best
wishes on your continued successand get going on business
number six.
Let's get going.
Jorge Olson (33:48):
I'm late to the game.
Thank you very much for havingme.
I really appreciate you.
Erin Manning (33:53):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry's leadingnews source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again, and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your Gary Pageau, and todaywe're joined by Jorge Olson,
who is a longtime businessleader, executive marketer,
brand expert.
He's taken five companiespublic and he's coming to us
from San Diego, California,today.
Hi Jorge, how are you today?
Jorge Olson (00:37):
I am wonderful, Gary.
How are you?
Gary Pageau (00:39):
I'm doing great.
So let's talk a little bit,before we get started, about
your business journey, how yougot started in business, because
you started at a very young age.
Jorge Olson (00:49):
Yes, I actually started studying influence when
I was 12 years old.
I took it seriously at 16.
And I realized that influencetransferred into economics or
business.
It's called marketing and Isaid, really, people pay me for
this.
So I transitioned from justinfluence to specifically
(01:12):
influence in the marketplace ormarketing.
I was lucky enough to havementors and made it to an
executive position at the age of27, vice president of marketing
and then from there I stayed ata C-level until I became an
entrepreneur.
Gary Pageau (01:32):
Okay, and you've written a few books along the
lines too Quite a few.
Jorge Olson (01:36):
Yes, my first published book was Build your
Beverage Empire 15 years ago.
It's now in its third edition.
My latest book is MarketingKarma.
And then I've done maybe sixbusiness books, a few fiction
books, and I've helpedentrepreneurs.
(01:58):
I've helped 10 entrepreneurs asa co-writer.
Gary Pageau (02:01):
So I have maybe 15 books so far as a co-writer, so
I have maybe 15 books so far Now.
Were you always in the beverageindustry as part of your
background, and what attractedyou to that?
Jorge Olson (02:13):
Sure, I started in software.
This was ERP softwareeverything a company needs and
the software was a milliondollars plus and it was for the
food industry accounting,production, logistics, sales,
marketing, the whole shebang.
Right After that I transitionedinto wholesale distribution as
(02:34):
an entrepreneur and I addedbeverages as one of my products.
I liked it because of the terms.
You could sell a lot ofbeverages and I was selling on
my own.
I was producing my own products1,000 fast-moving consumer
goods I've developed, andelectronics, pet supplies,
things you only buy once.
(02:55):
And then when I did the math, Isaid what am I doing?
I need to do something thatpeople will buy every day.
And I saw that people go into a7-Eleven and they buy coffee
every day, or they buy Monsterevery day, or they buy Coca-Cola
every day.
And I said, okay, that's my newme.
And I used the same strategiesthat I used to become an
(03:18):
industry expert in software tobecome an industry expert in the
beverage industry.
Gary Pageau (03:24):
Okay.
So you were kind of selective.
It wasn't like you had a bigyearning to, you know, be in the
beverage industry, as much asyou saw that that was an
opportunity you can make animpact in because you understood
the buying cycle of itPrecisely, precisely.
So you've been involved withfive companies when you came
down to like leave companies orsell companies, or you've taken
(03:47):
a couple of public.
I believe you know how doesthat actually?
I think you've taken fivepublic.
Yes, is that something that youthink that you're kind of wired
as an entrepreneur just to kindof start something, create it,
take it to a point of story andthen move on?
Jorge Olson (04:05):
create it, take it to a point of story and then
move on.
Yes, I think, as anentrepreneur, we have the option
when we start a business.
If you tell me that you want tostart a business right now, I
would ask you what is the exit?
From the first day we just met,you tell me your idea and I say
what is the exit?
Now you might say you know,this is a passion project.
I don't really want to exit.
(04:26):
It's kind of a hobby that Itransitioned into a business.
Perfectly fine, I have plentyof those as well.
However, if it's a business youwant to scale, if it's a
business that you want to growand you want to grow it fast, I
always say money gives you speed.
That means investment andinvestors want an exit.
(04:49):
This is why it takes you toeither selling the company which
I've sold a couple withoutgoing public, or taking it
public.
This way you can continue toraise capital.
You can buy other companies andmaybe sell a little stock
yourself.
Gary Pageau (05:05):
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about you know
kind of how that relates to mymarket, because in our industry,
you know we've got a widevariety of different kind of
companies.
Right, you've got people whoare in you know AI startups and
doing things, and there's otherpeople who are among the
listeners of this, who are, youknow, maybe second or third
generation businesses in theindustry maybe a camera store or
(05:26):
school photo company and youknow their model was to pass it
along in the family and you knowas things change, you know
maybe they've had to changetheir exit plan or whatever.
Can you talk a little bit aboutyou know when the market
changed, how you may have toadapt your exit strategy?
Jorge Olson (05:46):
Sure, if you're're an ai company I'm on the board
of directors of an ai company.
That just happens to be visualeffects, and of course it's it's
going to have an exit.
Before it was a family businessand it was run as a family
business for 15 years.
Okay, and they have to adaptbecause what they do, which is
(06:08):
3D for aerospace.
They told me he's my friend andthey told me I think we're
going to be out of a job in twoyears.
And I said two years seems anawful long time.
I think more like two or threemonths.
So they said and they're verysmart and they're programmers as
well, not just visual artistsor designers.
(06:29):
They do a lot of photography,videography and mostly 3D
animation.
And I told them let's hit yourclients, which is Boeing and
these big companies forinvestment and position yourself
for an exit so that they'rehappy as well.
So this is an example of how atraditional let's say, 3d or
(06:51):
designer company is adaptingwith artificial intelligence,
raising capital, surviving butthen positioning themselves for
an exit.
Let's say that you have afamily business.
My first wholesale distributioncompany was a family business.
I bought it and I grew it.
I also grew tired of it becauseit's a lot of hands on.
(07:15):
I was in the warehouse all thetime, getting dirty with dust
and moving things, hurting myback, things like that and I
said, okay, I'm over this.
I want to do the beveragesright.
I want to do beverageconsulting and help companies
scale.
I don't want to wash trucks andvisit 7-Elevens and Circle K's.
So I said I need to exit.
(07:38):
I didn't just want to leave thecompany and let it go because
it was selling, it wassuccessful and it was making me
a full-time income.
What I did at that time is Imade sure that I had systems.
First of all, if a new owneroperator is coming to the
business and they have no ideawhat to do, you're both in
(07:59):
trouble.
But if they come into abusiness and you have systems
for everything and now it's easywith computers Back then it
wasn't so easy.
You had to record everything,write everything down, take
screenshots of everything, noSOP software like today.
So I would encourage thesesmall business owners to develop
(08:20):
systems for accounting, forsales scripts, a list of their
customers, pricing, how to buyproduct.
Once they have their systems,they can put their company up
for sale.
There's a lot of differentwebsites that allow you to list
your company for free and theytake a commission from the sale,
(08:41):
right?
Gary Pageau (08:42):
Now most businesses don't sell right.
I mean, that's one of theproblems that people have when
they experience selling theirbusinesses.
I think some people say it's ashigh as 80% of businesses that
are listed for sale don'tactually sell right, and I think
part of it is because of whatyou just said.
People don't have a businessthat's actually transferable
(09:05):
right, they don't have theprocesses in place, they don't
have the documentation in place,because it may have just been
like we've always done it thatway and here, just buy my store
and move on.
So I think you've hit on agreat point, and actually I've
had other people on the podcasttalk about business sales to do
that.
But I don't want to talk justabout business sales.
I also want to talk about kindof building your personal brand,
because that's something thatyou've been focusing on in the
(09:27):
last few years and how that kindof helps your overall business
is building your personal brand.
Jorge Olson (09:37):
Yes, all of these companies that.
I've sent public.
I've raised over $100 million.
It's all through personalbranding, everything Since I
received, or I got, my first joband then I ascended to vice
president, I did it withpersonal branding.
My second job, which was vicepresident of business
development for a projectmanagement software, personal
branding the way I started mywholesale business.
(09:58):
I positioned myself as awholesale expert.
I even wrote a book on it.
Beverages same thing.
Position myself as an expert.
If you want to sell yourbusiness, position yourself as
an expert.
If you want to fund yourbusiness, if you want customers,
if you want anything, positionyourself first.
Now, this is the issue.
(10:19):
Most small businesses want toseem larger, so they hide behind
the logo because they see othercompanies doing that, like
Coca-Cola, pepsi-cola.
Because they see othercompanies doing that, like
Coca-Cola, pepsi-cola.
And if you go to a master'sprogram, an MBA, they will give
you all of these case studiesfrom fortune companies.
(10:40):
Well, guess what?
We are not fortune companies,so they would have to teach us
how those companies started inorder for us to understand how
to scale.
And they all started withpersonal branding.
Nowadays, personal branding ismore popular because we see some
of the largest companies,especially in technology, where
(11:01):
the CEOs are on TikTok YouTubeconstantly, so you associate
ChatGPT, nvidia, microsoft andApple and all of these big
companies with the person.
Back in the day, that wasn't athing when I was a kid.
It is now, so it's much easierto explain to people what they
(11:22):
need to do instead of, let's sayI used to see this a lot people
would open a linkedin profileand put the logo instead of
their picture.
Gary Pageau (11:31):
Right, yeah, you don't see that so much anymore.
Jorge Olson (11:33):
But absolutely so.
This is the beginning ofpersonal branding.
You are the brand.
Gary Pageau (11:39):
Right, so what do you mean by personal branding?
I mean, obviously we know whatbranding is.
What are some of the attributesyou think that you can actually
put forth that are useful inpersonal branding?
Because everyone's is going tobe different, right?
Because not everyone can be thesame.
Jorge Olson (11:55):
That's exactly right.
I think there's two majorpoints that everybody, no matter
what the business, would needto focus on.
The first one is your industry.
Whatever your industry isphotography, videography or AI
or any other business is youneed to position yourself as an
expert, first in that industry.
(12:16):
I did it by writing.
Now I do it with a lot ofvideos.
I still write.
My goal is a book a year.
However, social media helps mea lot because even if I'm not
writing a book, I can do threeor four videos and if I'm
eloquent and I know what I'mtalking about, people will see
it and they will call me.
Without reading the book.
(12:36):
They would just say I saw yourvideo.
I like how you speak.
I think I know you now becauseI developed a report through the
video.
Sure, let me call you.
So your personal brand startswith your industry and then
thought leader.
Now what does that mean?
Because I see this used a lot.
Gary Pageau (12:54):
Yeah, it's kind of overused actually.
Jorge Olson (12:56):
It's overused.
And back when we were doingbranding, what it used to mean
was where you are outside ofyour industry.
For example, if your industryis photography and you're doing
videos on editing or buyingequipment or maybe even which
lens to buy next, that would beindustry right, industry related
(13:20):
.
But then if you step a littlebit out of that, maybe you went
on vacation, you still take yourcamera, you're still taking
pictures, pictures but thenmaybe you talk about the view
and what it means to you andwhat it?
means for you to, to travel,that to have the time and the
money and the energy and thehealth to travel, and you
meditate on it.
(13:40):
Now you're a thought leaderbecause you're thinking.
You have mindfulness behind it,right?
So let's take the wordmindfulness and put it into an
external view.
You're externalizing yourmindfulness in an article, in a
video, in a blog post, in aLinkedIn post.
I think that's what being athought leader means to me in
(14:04):
personal branding.
Now why would we do that?
Because you can't hit everybodywith the industry all the time.
You need to establish anemotional relationship with your
customers, and just talkingabout specs is not going to do
it.
You need to go inside for that.
Gary Pageau (14:22):
Right, I guess the challenge I think some people
would have is maybe this, beinga subject matter expert, which
is what you're talking about isall they're suited for.
Maybe they're not much of athought leader right, I mean not
everyone can be.
You know a philosopher, right,so is that okay just to be in
your area and be an expert in?
(14:43):
You know which lens to pick?
Jorge Olson (14:46):
Absolutely, it can be local.
I can be in San Diego and takemy camera and go out.
I like restaurants, I likerooftop bars, because I'm in San
Diego so I can go and do somereviews with photography on
these bars, but then I can talkabout how cool it is to go out.
So now you're hitting both.
(15:07):
You're hitting the photographyand you're hitting the equipment
and, of course, what it meansto you.
What's going to happen ispeople are going to start
reaching out to you.
Can you come and photograph myplace?
They'll give you free food,free drinks and, pretty soon,
money as well.
So this is a very localized wayof gaining influence in your
(15:28):
community, being a pillar ofyour community, and then people
looking out for you and we'renot for everybody, but you're
going to resonate with somebody.
That's the client that we want.
We want the clients thatappreciate us, because that
means they're going to come back, they're not going to negotiate
price and they're going toprepay, which is what I like.
Gary Pageau (15:52):
So how do you keep the creative piece of it alive?
Right, because you know mostpeople think they've got one or
two like statements or what haveyou.
But you got to keep this alive,you got to keep reinventing.
You know your viewpoints andyour in your content.
How do you?
How do you do that?
Jorge Olson (16:09):
Yes, I think that's an incredible, incredible
question, and everybody isdifferent In my world.
I grew up in creativity.
No business, no money.
Was discussed in my house Art,literature, philosophy.
I had 10,000 books in my nomoney, but 10,000 books in my
house, so it was all aboutcreativity.
(16:32):
I studied art, not business.
So everything that I do, I doit from a creative point of view
, from a storytelling point ofview.
The first thing that I wouldsay is if you want to be more
creative, what are you puttinginside of your head?
(16:53):
For example, are you onlyreading business books or are
you also reading novels andstories and things that have to
do with creativity and fiction?
One of my friends, which has avery successful marketing
company branding and marketingcompany, more visuals than
anything else called me one timeat 12 o'clock at night and he
(17:17):
was in a panic and he told me Ilost my creativity, I don't know
what to do, I'm not creative,they're going to fire me.
And he was in a panic.
I was up at that time and Isaid well, let's start with the
simple things.
What are you reading?
And he listed five businessbooks off the top of his set and
(17:38):
I said what about fiction?
Well, I don't read fiction.
Okay.
What movies are you looking at?
Well, I don't watch movies.
Okay.
How about Netflix?
Or documentaries?
I said okay.
The answer is it's so simple,you're not going to believe it.
Read novels, go watch sciencefiction and fantasy films or
(18:02):
programs, and then you're goingto have an overload of
creativity.
Your brain is going to startbeing reprogrammed and it's
going to start talking theseideas oh my God, I like that
dragon.
Maybe I can do a logo about adragon or a story.
Or my client needs something.
(18:22):
I'm going to do a spiff on Gameof Thrones for his next
campaign.
So then he called me a week noteven a month after, a week
after and said so.
Then he called me a week noteven a month after, a week after
and said that was a quick fix.
How did you do that?
And that's because you'refilling your brain with numbers.
Gary Pageau (18:40):
Well, the thing is is your brain needs to build new
pathways all the time.
That's what needs to happen.
Jorge Olson (18:47):
Exactly.
And then I would take itfurther Write, write Whatever
you can write Fiction, a story,your further Write.
Write whatever you can writefiction, a story, your story.
Write a sales letter, justwrite.
The act of writing isphenomenal for building
creativity.
Draw, I can't draw, that's fine.
I can't draw either, and I drawevery day.
(19:08):
I have a goal of drawingsomething, even if it's in a
little notebook like this onethat I have in front of me, that
I call some mushrooms and thisis a pocketbook, right, because
I said I need to be creative.
I'm going to draw something andthen pretty soon, my brain is
filled with creativity and Ihave to record myself because I
(19:29):
have an idea for a novel and allof these other things.
So yes you're absolutely right.
We need these new connections,these new neural pathways, to be
bridges and tunnels andhyper-connected with each other,
Because what people don't getis that once you build these
(19:50):
connections, you can use themfor whatever you want not just
for creativity.
You can use them for whateveryou want for business, for
numbers, for memory.
So build those pathways.
Gary Pageau (20:01):
When you're looking at building your personal brand
, what are common mistakespeople make with it?
Jorge Olson (20:09):
Oh, yes, the first mistake is wanting to associate
with the business from the start.
Say this is my name and this iswhat I do.
Think of when you're networkingand you introduce yourself to
somebody.
Or think of it when you go onan airplane and somebody's
sitting next to you, they havetheir headphones ready and they
(20:31):
don't want to be bothered.
They have a movie queued up.
You say I'm not going to botherthis person because obviously
it's a five-hour trip.
Maybe I used to go to New Yorkto visit investment bankers once
every other week.
So five, six hours on the plane.
But you want to be polite andcourteous and you introduce
(20:52):
yourself with your name, right,hey, this is my name, that's it.
Yourself with your name, right,hey, this is my name, that's it
.
But then maybe they say this ismy name and they say what do
you do for a living?
And maybe I say I say thecompany's public and raise the
money.
And then I see the headphonesgo down and they say their
laptop closes and then theyposition their body where their
(21:13):
torso is facing me and they saytell me all about it.
Gary Pageau (21:17):
Right.
Jorge Olson (21:18):
And I go.
What happened to your movie?
I didn't mention the company, Ididn't mention anything else,
but I know, I know what's goingto be a trigger and it's a
solution.
Right, I help people writebooks.
If you're in the visualindustry, I have people position
themselves as industry leaders,starting with their portrait.
(21:40):
I take power portraits ofpeople so they look even better
than how they look at themselves.
These are all ways that you canposition yourself.
Now you need to turn that intoa headline.
Gary Pageau (21:56):
Okay.
Jorge Olson (21:56):
Think of the, of the who cares, right, you,
you're sitting and do thisexercise in your brain.
I actually teach this exercisewhen I'm doing keynote speeches.
I tell people to do thisexercise for real, to write it
down.
You're in an airplane.
What's going to make you say,okay, good, and then you can put
your headphones on and what'sgoing to make you say, okay,
good, and then you put yourheadphones on and what's going
to make you go?
What I was just looking for?
(22:19):
That I write books.
Oh, my God, I have a dream ofwriting a book.
How can I do it?
How did you do it?
Those are all headlines thatget over the who cares.
And then people see you forsomething else, not just a brand
, not just a logo, not just acompany, but somebody who has a
(22:40):
story.
Gary Pageau (22:41):
Right.
Jorge Olson (22:42):
It's all about the story.
Our brain is wired for 250,000years to learn, communicate and
build rapport through stories.
We forget that, so you need totell a story.
In this case, this was more ofan elevator pitch, right, you
tell a story in one sentence,but then you expand, you take
(23:03):
that expansion and you reallywork on it.
It's not just that you write itand forget it.
You write it and then you writeit again.
Maybe you get an editor, maybeyou ask AI to help you with it.
You write it and then you writeit again.
Maybe you get an editor, maybeyou ask AI to help you with it.
Take it and then you use it onyour LinkedIn headline.
You use it on your emails, youuse it when you speak with
(23:24):
people, you use it on yourbusiness card.
You use it all the time.
And this is how you avoid themistake of'm a lawyer.
I'm a photographer.
I have a photography store,right, yeah, that's not sexy
right, it's interesting.
Gary Pageau (23:43):
So there's a lot of like self-evaluation there,
because you have to be reallytruthful with yourself.
Right, because you because partof what you're talking about is
you've got to be authentic withyour branding.
I mean, you can't beoverselling yourself or saying
something that's truthful.
So you have to be at leastself-aware enough to know what
your strengths are and maybewhat your limitations are.
Jorge Olson (24:06):
Gary, that's exactly right, and let me tell
you, speaking of stories, let metell you a quick story.
When I was doing a lot ofkeynote speaking, my mom would
go when I was speaking locallyin San Diego or even in Tijuana,
on the other side of the border, because I speak Spanish, and
she would hate it that I alwaystold the audience every mistake
(24:28):
that I've made.
Why do you need to go up thereand tell people that you failed
in this and that you're bad atthat?
So many mistakes?
And because number one, it'sthe truth, right, and I'm not
afraid of making mistakes.
I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid of failure.
I hated that in school you havean F for failure.
(24:48):
In Mexico, where I went toschool, you it's 10-point system
, right, you get a 10, which is100% like an A, and then it goes
down, but no failure.
They don't use that word.
In many countries they don'tuse that word.
We start teaching kids, futureentrepreneurs, that failing is
(25:09):
bad, failing is fabulous.
F is for fabulous, not forfailing.
So I think failure, it's thequickest way to success.
Fall and fall forward.
Learn, of course.
Read right, read a lot, learnfrom others, learn from their
mistakes, learn not to makethose mistakes, even if you just
(25:31):
read it.
That's an incredible skill whenyou can not make the mistakes
of case studies that you read.
But you're going to have to tryit and you're going to have to
fail.
And being authentic, as you said, is key, including telling your
audience, your customers, aboutyour failures.
Maybe that's the most importantpart.
(25:52):
One of my mentors, which is avery famous copywriter, dan
Kennedy.
I was the chief marketingofficer for his company for some
time and he used to get onstage and said he was a
recovering alcoholic, right.
And then somebody asked him whydo you do it?
And he said because I get everyformer alcoholic is client,
(26:16):
just like that.
Because they get it.
The other people don't seem tocare, so they don't hold it
against me.
He said so why not?
And it's the truth, right, it'sthe truth.
So, yes, you're absolutelyright, being authentic is
important.
When you're right, write aboutyour failures, your hero's
journey.
When you write, write aboutyour failures, your hero's
journey, which is the way that Iwould like everybody to
(26:37):
position your personal brand asa hero's journey, where you are
the hero first, but you turninto the sage, magician, jedi,
whatever you want to say.
And then your customer is thehero in the hero's journey.
Erin Manning (26:52):
The hero fails Right Hero fails in every
movie's journey.
Jorge Olson (26:55):
The hero fails Right.
The hero fails In every movie,every book, every story the hero
fails, so talk about yourfailures.
Write about your failures.
People will love you for it.
Gary Pageau (27:07):
So your latest book is about selling without
selling.
Can you just kind of touch onthat, Because when I read that I
was like that it's a veryinteresting approach, and what
do you mean by that?
Jorge Olson (27:21):
All right.
So let's start with the resultsthat you might get, which is
the results that I get, and itgoes something like this
Somebody calls me on the phoneand says I already know who you
are before I can speak.
I already know who you arebefore I can speak.
I already know who you are, Ialready know what you're about.
I feel I know you, I know howmuch you charge.
Here's my credit card.
(27:43):
You can charge it.
So they prepay, they don'tnegotiate, they appreciate me
and my time and the value that Iprovide.
I don't have to explain it.
So that's the result.
That's what we all wantCustomers that are high-end
customers, they don't give meproblems, they don't complain
(28:04):
and they give me the credit cardup front.
Now, how do you get there?
Right, that was the point.
I call it marketing karma.
And I got there.
And you get there by sharinginformation and giving value, by
being authentic, talking aboutyour problems and your failures,
like we talked about, andtelling your story, while
(28:27):
providing value in that story,in other words, not features and
benefits a story.
For example, I grew up inTijuana with no running water
and no electricity and I made itto vice president at 27,
retired my mom and my grandmawho worked all day.
They knocked doors to sellbusiness cards and printed
(28:49):
material and I called them withmy first check and I said we're
rich.
We weren't, but I thought wewere rich, called the electrical
company and put someelectricity, we're rich.
Right, it was.
That was my greatest trauma.
That moment for me is the mostimportant moment in my business
career and I sent I was workingin Germany and I sent 50% of my
(29:14):
check to my mom and my grandmaand we all live with that 50%.
They could live with the 50% inMexico and I could live with my
50% in Germany.
I had a company, car andapartment.
That helped a lot.
That's one of my origin storiesthat I just told you in a
minute.
It usually takes a wholekeynote, but I just told, just
told you in a minute.
(29:34):
It usually takes a wholekeynote, but I just told it to
you in a minute.
So I start with that and that'spart of the story that I give.
When I tell the story, ofcourse I say how I did it and
how I got there, and the personwho hired me was my marketing
karma.
I couldn't get a job.
(29:54):
I graduated from San Diego State.
I lived in Tijuana and commuteddaily and I had this thing,
which is cultural and you learnat home, like in the deep south,
which you're nice to everybody,right, and I invited everybody
home and I invited everybody outand I invited everybody home
(30:14):
and I invited everybody out andI was teaching at a language
school and I got internationalstudents that were flying from
all over the world to San Diego.
Later I found out to play golf,not to learn the language, but
because the company paid.
They went to learn the languageand I taught doing business in
Spanish and doing business inEnglish for minimum wage.
(30:37):
But I saw it as an opportunityto meet people and my classes
were something like oh, you'rethe CEO of Deloitte Touche, tell
me all about it.
And then I would shut up andjust listen to their life story
and learn from them.
So I said, oh my God, they'repaying me to learn from these
Fortune 500 CEOs.
That's fantastic.
(30:58):
And then I would say, want togo to Tijuana and meet some good
Mexican?
They would say yeah, so I wouldtake them out, I would show
them all over San Diego, allover Tijuana.
I never expected anything tocome of it except for friendship
, but that's not the way karmaworks.
Karma doesn't care whether youwant something or not.
(31:19):
It's going to give it to you.
If you have karma coins, let'ssay Right, of course.
What happens was one of theseguys said you know what?
You're the kind of guy that Iwant in my team.
You do everything over the top.
You treat me with so much loveand respect and you just met me.
If I had 10 guys like you in myteam, I would rock.
(31:41):
So you're going to come live inGermany.
Gary Pageau (31:44):
I couldn't find a job right.
Jorge Olson (31:47):
You have a job guaranteed.
You don't have to apply.
You already went through theinterview process, which was
going out to eat tacos and sometequila in Tijuana.
He hired me and he was my firstbig mentor who helped me get to
six figures in my twenties vicepresident, then CEO, then
(32:08):
entrepreneur, et cetera and itwas all because I was nice.
Now, okay, I prepared myselfbefore.
I read a book a day, but a lotof people do that.
A lot of people are preparedand study and have the
experience and fall, but they'remissing the marketing, karma,
part of heart, the kindness thatyou need towards others so that
(32:33):
you can accumulate this worldof good faith where people that
you want.
Right, because now you willattract the right person to give
you an opportunity a client, itcan be a mentor, it can be a
supplier, it can be a friend, itcan be an investor as well.
(32:54):
So that's the way I did it.
And that's the way I do it tothis day.
Gary Pageau (32:59):
And you've done it multiple times, multiple times
across multiple industries.
So where can people go for moreinformation to learn about
Marketing, karma and all yourvarious stories you have to tell
, sure?
Jorge Olson (33:15):
I have free webinars and newsletters because
it's karma right and they cango to jorge orisoncom,
j-o-r-g-e-o-l-s-o-ncom.
Subscribe to my newsletter andthen they will get my frameworks
, my webinars, everything that Ihave.
Gary Pageau (33:36):
They'll get everything Nice Well.
Thank you, murray, it's beengreat to meet you, and best
wishes on your continued successand get going on business
number six.
Let's get going.
Jorge Olson (33:48):
I'm late to the game.
Thank you very much for havingme.
I really appreciate you.
Erin Manning (33:53):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
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