Episode 74 | Powerful Brand Building Specifics, From Cutco to Crypto! - Lauren Gibson

In this episode, I chat with Lauren Gibson, who shares her eclecltic sales journey across various industries, from non-profits to blockchain technology. (Wait until you hear what she sold in her first sales role!) Lauren talks about the significance of community in sales, and explains how she made daily posts on LinkedIn to build a personal brand. Lauren shares Lauren shares specific, actionable advice about sales, branding, the power of content creation and more. You'll be fascinated by Lauren's story! 

About Lauren Gibson:

Lauren has held sales roles across the tech and NFT infrastructure sectors, consistently driving revenue and forging impactful client relationships. As a world traveler, having visited 44 countries, she brings a unique global perspective to her work, enriching her approach to sales and client engagement. Currently, Lauren is pursuing a new business route, building her brand around the Future of Work and coaching clients towards fulfillment in this new digital age.

Resources Shared:

https://a.co/d/f0SuW4m - The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

https://a.co/d/iv9avM4 - How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Sales people Lauren recommends following on LinkedIn: 

Dariia Gerasymova 

Will Faulkenborg

Kay Miller (of course!)

 Follow/Contact Lauren:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laur3n-gibson/

Kay Miller interviews women in sales with proven track records, as they share their experiences, success strategies and tools you can use to crush your sales goals. Kay has a history of sales success, earning the nickname “Muffler Mama” when she sold more automotive mufflers than anyone in the world. Kay and her guests deliver actionable insights and real-world tools that will help you overcome obstacles, adopt a winning mindset, and maximize your sales results.

Kay is the author of the book, Uncopyable Sales Secrets – How to Create an Unfair Advantage and Outsell the Competition. Go to Amazon.com and search “Uncopyable Sales Secrets” to order the book, or click the link below.

Contact:
kay@uncopyablesales.com
linkedin.com/in/millerkay
Order Uncopyable Sales Secrets: amzn.to/35dGlYZ

Transcript

Speaker 1 00:00:00 Welcome to UN Copyable women in Sales. If you're looking for actionable insights in real world tools to turbocharge your sales starting tomorrow, well, you're in the right place. Your host, Kay Miller, earned the affectionate nickname Muffler Mama when she sold more automotive mufflers than anyone else in the world. In this podcast, Kay will talk to another superstar women in sales as they reveal un copyable strategies you can use to rack up more leads. Snag snag dream clients, and take your sales numbers through the roof. Stay tuned and get ready to make more sales. And how about this more money? Speaker 2 00:00:40 Today I'm chatting with Lauren Gibson, and to say Lauren has an eclectic background is an understatement. She has experience in sales, project management, customer research, and content creation. She's worked in industries from non-profit to blockchain technology. And by the way, Lauren has been to 44 countries and lived in six of them. Lauren. Wow. Welcome to the podcast. Speaker 3 00:01:10 Thank you. Grateful to be here. Okay. Speaker 2 00:01:12 So I met you through my husband Steve, who probably everyone on this podcast knows. Speaker 2 00:01:18 Steve. through Community Empire, an online platform that I would like to talk about. But I would like to talk also about your sales background and some really unique industries and how you are making a transition, and then also touch on LinkedIn because you accomplished a feat of posting every day for quite a while. So those are some of the things I'd like to talk about. So why don't you tell us first, what's community Empire? Speaker 3 00:01:49 Sure. Okay. So community empire is a place for community builders. So I found Steve in this place because he's really so helpful in there. And and it was created from a, individual called Greg Eisenberg, who has built this idea of building communities that sell products and that sell something that is more, that is that is more close to what people want in, in life, not just selling them a thing, but selling them a feeling of being part of the community. And I think that is a general idea of where we are trending in terms of technology and sales and, and where we're going in life in general. Speaker 2 00:02:37 Definitely. I think that whole process is getting way more sophisticated, and especially in this day and age, connection is so huge. You know, first of all, we've got so much technology that of course, I wasn't used to till I was, you know, well into adulthood. And then we had Covid, which, you know, caused all kinds of issues. So community in general, that's something I'm really interested in to with the listeners of this podcast. So very fascinated by that aspect. I'd like to talk some about your background, and we'll get to the fact that you have been to 44 countries and lived in six countries, which is amazing. But before we do, let's talk a little bit about your sales background. And the listeners might be sales professionals. They also might be entrepreneurs or business owners. You know, we're all in sales. So I would like to get your take on some of the sales positions you've had and what you would recommend to other people. Listening. Sorry. Speaker 3 00:03:42 Yeah, well, let's start from the beginning. This wasn't a position that I applied for, but I remember when I was young, was around eight years old, and we were in the playground and someone had created basically a capitalist game utilizing acorns. And everyone would come to the playground every, every day, and we would bring things that we would trade for acorns. And I loved trading for the lowest price, and that was negotiating for me in the beginning. about decade later, I got my first real sales position that I applied to. I sold Cutco knives. Oh, I'm sure you've heard of them. Speaker 2 00:04:25 Those those are awesome. Speaker 3 00:04:27 They are awesome. So it was really easy to sell. And that was one of my first sales learnings was you want to sell something that is really easy that you also would actually use? Speaker 2 00:04:39 Were you selling those door to door? Speaker 3 00:04:41 I was actually cold calling people, so I initially started within my network. So my friends and family and people within my neighborhood, and fortunately I had some help from my mom who would connect me with some of her friends. Speaker 3 00:04:58 And I would always pitch it not as selling knives, but just selling the attempt to to speak with them about the knives. So I think that was also a core lesson for me. in sales, I'm not just selling the product immediately, especially during the first call. You want to sell just a meeting with them because once you have that meeting, once you have that one on one time with someone, you can get to know them, talk to them, and talk to them about their problems. Since I actually physically had meetings with them and I went to their house, we would compare their product, which was their knives, with my knives, and we would get to cut physical rope, cut a penny in half, slice grapes and see how, sharp those grapes were. And I got to say, okay, I, I did upset some of the, the husbands because they thought their knives were much sharper than they they thought possible. But, that was really my, my first, my first introduction. Speaker 2 00:06:06 So can I just jump in a little bit because we got cutco knives as a gift from a client and engraved. And they are so amazing. They are so sharp. They're really lifetime tools. However, I have to say, I cut part of my finger off with one. Speaker 4 00:06:25 Yeah. Speaker 3 00:06:26 You're not alone. Speaker 2 00:06:27 I had to go to the E.R.. I mean, I, I had no idea. So they are just as sharp today. So just a little shout out for Cutco knives. I know they're spendy, but they are totally worth it. So I love the fact, though, that you got with people, got to know them. And I know you're familiar with the the end Copyable framework working on the next step. You know, there's of course the, you know, comparison to dating and marriage. You don't ask someone to marry you on the first date. So I like the fact that even at an early age, you were aware of that, that you have to establish that relationship and not just talk about, here's my knife that's made of this type of material or whatever. Speaker 2 00:07:09 So so I love that. So that's where it started. Good background. So what what happened from there. Speaker 3 00:07:14 Well, it's key to know that both my parents were in sales. So my dad was an insurance. He started his own insurance agency and my mom was in marketing, which she would go to all of the southeast region. Winn-Dixie, if you're not familiar with that, I've. Speaker 2 00:07:30 Heard of it. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:07:31 Yes. And, and she would sell the products of, the food company that she was working for. So I felt that I always had, some of the sales knowledge from a young age. And one of the books that my father recommended to me, around when I was a teenager, was How to Win Friends and Influence People. And Dale. Speaker 2 00:07:54 Carnegie. Yes. What are the classic? Classic? Yeah. Speaker 3 00:07:59 Yeah. And, you know, one of the key lessons there is to always listen. So to listen more than your speaking, because then you can know about your potential prospects problems or your potential friend problems. Speaker 3 00:08:15 and when I say friend, I mean that whoever you're selling to, you want to really think about the long term game. And so when you want to have a friend, you want to try to get a good deal for them and make, make an impact on their lives so that they can remember you and maybe refer you, in future business opportunities. And I think that's what all of sales is, is just keeping up a persona that is uniquely you and that builds that trust, that builds that confidence and that authority and what, you know, so that people can refer back to you because as we know, in sales, referrals can be some of the biggest moneymakers of all for sure. Speaker 2 00:08:58 Referrals and recommendations. Definitely. Definitely. I just wanted to touch on something you said you talked about trading acorns, which I bet you were really good at it, and I'm sure it was really fun. And there's, you know, an investment company now, I don't know if that's what you call them, called acorns, which, yeah, I've signed up for. Speaker 2 00:09:16 So every week I think I put $10 in or something really small. It builds up. So you were ahead of the time with your ahead of the time. Speaker 3 00:09:26 And I probably probably inspired me to get into trading cryptocurrency. So as you know, I worked in Web3 and crypto. That was quite the leap because I did not have any tech experience. Previously I was teaching English in Tunisia, North Africa. So I jumped from Tunisia into, in back to the US to work in a fintech company where I was working project management and client client services. and to enter into blockchain technology, I decided I'm going to get my MBA to enter this, this new industry. And so I applied to a couple programs, got waitlisted and attempted to get into that one. And that one ended up being one that I've always wanted to get into, which was Georgetown. And I fortunately got in. And through that experience, I interned, as you mentioned, customer research. I did partnerships for a metaverse real estate startup, and then I ended up recently in sales, doing sales and operations, building out the operational structure of the sales process, and realizing at the end of, at the end of that, which was really my job post MBA, I realized sales just has always come naturally. Speaker 3 00:10:53 And I think it's because of, as I mentioned, my parents and growing up and some of the books that were recommended to me as a child. So although I went to all these countries, I kind of came back to sales because I realized that sales is just building trust and building a reputation around a product or service, but it's also just building it around yourself. And really, that has led me to where I am right now, which is really selling myself online. as you know. Speaker 2 00:11:25 And you know what life is all about sales and and of course, you know, we've got this new book that is not coming out for a few weeks called unstoppable. You. And so everybody, whether you are selling a product or service, whether it's something like cutco knives that I can understand or it's crypto and blockchain, which I don't understand. It's always building that trust and being an authority that they look up to. But you know, you talk about how to win friends and influence people. Many of our clients, we work with them long term. Speaker 2 00:12:00 Our friends, I mean, they've become friends. So like you said, you treat someone like they are a friend. People can figure that out. They can see that. So I'd love to hear just a little bit of the blockchain crypto thing because I don't know. And I'm guessing most of our listeners don't really understand that. So what is that? What were you doing? Speaker 4 00:12:21 Yeah. Speaker 3 00:12:22 I can also offer a piece of advice for anyone who's listening, who wants to enter something that they have no previous experience in, but they want to embrace, let's say, AI technologies or robotics, or maybe they want to get into, pharmaceuticals or, or, biomed, like biotechnology, something that maybe they don't have experience in the past. Really, how I got into these technologies was selling myself online, which is basically writing and attending conferences that were mostly online, because when I decided to pivot into this, it was the, the beginning of the pandemic. So there were all conferences online, and I started to just connect with people who were working in that technology, try and get on a call with them, because, as we know, in sales, just being able to get on a call with someone and being able to understand what is their language, how do they talk about things, helped me really change my vibe in a way. Speaker 3 00:13:31 For me to be able to speak about these technologies blockchains, NFTs, crypto, Web3 technologies and be able to utilize the same concepts in at least a business sense. Not getting too technical, but in at least a business sense for me to actually approach people on LinkedIn and get me a job. So I actually got two jobs and an internship through LinkedIn, just reaching out to people. So I just want to offer that as a piece of advice for anyone who wants to enter something new is just to dive deep into the industry and and just ask. Speaker 2 00:14:09 I mentioned in the introduction that you were on LinkedIn every day. I don't know for how long, but for quite a while and grew your number of connections. What was it from how many thousand, 2000 to 4000, something like that? Speaker 3 00:14:25 1600 to 3300. So about two weeks and four months, 120 days every single day. Speaker 2 00:14:33 For months, every single day. So I would love to hear more about that. because I know you post it every day, but it's really not just posting, it's what you post and who you attract the attention of. Speaker 2 00:14:47 So tell us a little bit about that process. Speaker 1 00:14:51 Today's podcast is sponsored by the acclaimed book Unstoppable Sales Secrets How to Create an Unfair Advantage and Outsell Your Competition, by Kay Miller. If you want to make more sales, you need to read this book. We'll even get you started with a free download of the first two chapters. Go to Unstoppable Sales. Com slash chapters to grab this offer right now. Speaker 3 00:15:17 Absolutely. So. When I started posting, I was still working as a part time sales and strategy consultant for an AI startup, and I wanted to really start putting my ideas online because I've heard from some of these online internet personalities that one of the best ways to start working online is to really post online. And I've always been told that my writing style is is very engaging. And so that's something that I decided to lean into. For some people, it may be a video, it might be more so pictures, but for me it was really just writing every single day and I had no end date when I started this, I started writing every day actually, because I picked up this book, The Artist Way, by an artist. Speaker 3 00:16:14 But I had learned from a couple entrepreneurs such as Tim Ferriss, Noah Kagan, Cody Sanchez. These are people who are kind of well known entrepreneurs who actually recommend this book as one to help get you to the next level in your business. And one, by. Speaker 2 00:16:31 The way, I'll put the names of these books and the authors in the show notes so you can find them. So I want to find them too. I know some of those authors, but. So go on. Sorry for interrupting. Speaker 3 00:16:43 No. No worries. So this book, the only requirement is to write three pages in the morning every day. And it's a 12 week process to unlocking the creativity within you, which creativity can just be unblocking creative blocks for your business or whatever is the next step for you. So I decided to take this on and three days into it I realized, why am I doing this just to myself? I'm going to start doing it for other people. So in the middle of this, I was writing in the morning three pages every morning for 84 days, because that was the length of the 12 weeks, and I had no intention of stopping when I was doing it on LinkedIn. Speaker 3 00:17:26 But I realized, though, that I started to get all of this data. I guess I'd say for what I was most interested in, and I'll and I'll tell you, I, I started writing about first my reflections on me entering blockchain technologies, and then I started writing about sales and business development. And it's funny because me writing about that actually got me another, consulting gig, which was interesting. me just talking about how to speak with clients and what does the the flow look like of a client going from prospect to purchase and post purchase? So I was writing about topics that interested me that I had experience in, and I realized that my life has been, just, as you say, eclectic mix of testing, different types of careers. And I'm grateful to have had these experiences, let's say, in sales, because that has helped me develop the knowledge to be able to speak with people confidently and be able to sell something that is a little bit different now, it's going to to be myself. Speaker 2 00:18:40 Well, there's a lot to unpack there that you talked about, but yes, content creation. And as a writer, I love to write. I've written a book on my own, and now I've co-written a book, and it is a discipline. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. The momentum is huge. So really it does. It starts out as a discipline. Steve likes to joke that when he wrote his first book back in 1990, he literally took a belt and belted himself to the chair every morning and forced himself to write and and then, of course, I'm sure you're writing has evolved and you've learned things about yourself and and others, and of course, they've learned from you. So I think that's a great idea to force yourself. How many pages you said 3 or 5 pages. Speaker 3 00:19:31 Three pages every morning. So it ended up being for 84 days. I forget how many that is. And I didn't do it all the time I did, I calculated it, and I did 98.5% of the pages, but it was pretty good. Speaker 2 00:19:45 Close. That's still being. Speaker 4 00:19:47 A. Speaker 3 00:19:47 That's what I feel. Speaker 4 00:19:48 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:19:49 And by the way, you said you were lucky to get into Georgetown. I'm not. I'm sure it's not just luck. So you're obviously a super sharp cookie, I'll say. And Steve, when he met you, said, oh my gosh, you've got to meet Lauren. So I'm excited to be connected with you. so were you posting only on LinkedIn or did you use other social platforms too? Speaker 3 00:20:14 I was only posting on LinkedIn. I have plans to start posting other places because I've started experimenting with video. So that's a little teaser for where I may be going next, but I've really just been diving into exactly what you and Steve have written about, which is being un copyable. So when Steve recently gifted me his book on Copyable, I realized, oh wow, this is exactly how I live my life. But I realized this is how I need to embrace it even more, because the current version of the UN copyable me is embracing a couple identity shifts. Speaker 3 00:20:55 Really. So the identity shift that I am embracing now as being a content creator is having these experiences and sales and customer research and project management and being able to embrace all of this and not just pivoting as I've done so many times, but taking all this and going not from 0 to 1 again, but from 1 to 10. And this is this is why I'm I'm really I'm really grateful to have met really you, you and Steve. Because I want to write books. Steve really has lived the life that I don't know all of his life. Right. Speaker 4 00:21:36 But if you don't want to know all the. Speaker 2 00:21:39 Books, that's for sure. Speaker 4 00:21:40 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:21:40 The love, the fact. Right. What makes you an copyable is you. And just talking about your background. Yes. Don't just let that all go. This is part of who Lauren is. And everybody listening. Your story and your experience and whatever your personality and quirks and loves and whatever, that all is part of who you are. And yes, put that all together and you have an unstoppable brand. Speaker 2 00:22:08 And as I said, you've got some advantages because you have had really unusual experiences. Now, I know as far as the future, like you said, we don't want to say pivot. Number one, that's so overused now, but. Right. You're actually more of shifting your goals and you want to help others, right? And be a coach to help them learn what you've learned. So how do you see yourself going forward? Speaker 3 00:22:35 That's a great question and I'm really building that out right now. I have started with the experimentation phase, which has been building that audience, which has been testing what interests me, testing what interests other people. And now the next phase is really to not just put pen to paper, but to build out a strategy of what is to come. And as I teased before, I'm hoping to move into bigger platforms and start my start my journey of book writing or starting my journey of creating a newsletter. So I think that as you and I just spoke with Steve right before we started this conversation, I think I want to lean more into into this creation process and this self exploration process, which as I understand, is not the traditional method as experienced with my parents generation. Speaker 3 00:23:37 I can tell you that my parents who would qualify absolutely in the baby boomer generation, experienced a time where there was maybe ten jobs that you do right, and they experienced a time where there is a set career path for people and and you have to lean into decades of experience before you become something like a coach. And now I realized that there's just so much opportunity with, with what you can build myself, having built, rebuilt myself in hundreds of different ways that that there are people younger than me, really, who are very early Gen Z. As I mentioned to you, I'm at the later gen of millennial like the cusp of Gen Z, but people who are younger than me who are building something of authority despite not having those years of experience. And I think that's really inspiring, and it really shows that you can create anything you want. And I'd also just love to touch on some of the creators that are that are existing within the sales ecosystem that I have also kind of dove into within LinkedIn. Speaker 4 00:24:54 For sure, and we. Speaker 2 00:24:55 Only have five minutes, if you can believe it. We might have to have you back. But yeah, tell us who you have, you know, resonated with and could help the listener. Speaker 3 00:25:05 Yeah. Let let me just name two. Will Falkenberg and Daria Gerasimov. And I'll give you those for the show notes as well. Those are two people that I highly recommend following as someone, if you are an early stage SDR, or you want to see how you can use content to build a funnel for your the product that you're representing or the service that you're representing. I think those two people are really great representations of what is possible in B2B sales. And those people I connected with, because I was testing out whether I wanted to go the full solopreneur sales route and decided I wanted to do more content creation. But but what I recognize from them is that there is so much potential to get sales and inbound leads from people, from you just posting your knowledge about what your product or services online and making yourself vulnerable. Speaker 3 00:26:07 So putting out a meme, putting out some a funny comment and if anyone is looking to build their LinkedIn following, I have a couple tips that I've learned. So one you want to post in the morning. So I'm in eastern time, so it's recommended 8 a.m. so you could schedule your posts in advance. I know you're in Pacifics. That would be 5 a.m., but that would be recommended to post in advance. And then two, it's recommended to comment on other people's posts within the 30 minutes that you have posted, and the and the specific person that you should comment on is your target audience. So whoever you want to be, whoever you want to sell to, whoever your marketing department has identified is right. Speaker 4 00:26:53 Yeah. Whoever. Speaker 3 00:26:54 Exactly. Who is that moose? And to find who that is. And that's the person you want to comment on. Well. Speaker 2 00:27:01 Interesting, because yes, my dad worked at one company, a retailer, his whole career. And that's what happened, like you said. Speaker 2 00:27:10 But now, I mean, this is exciting for people like you and even people like me. I told you that. I just interviewed someone. Her name is Viveca von Rosen a couple episodes ago, actually, episode number 70. Check that out. And she's doing a reinvention and she's coaching women over 50. So here you are on the very early side of the spectrum. Like you said, you're still not the youngest, but. Speaker 4 00:27:35 Content. Speaker 2 00:27:36 Creation. That is really powerful. There's another woman I interviewed and her name is Kate Strashin, and she is in the data world and she is somebody you should check out. I'll put her LinkedIn. I interviewed her, she's got maybe 170,000 followers, I think, right now. And when I asked her, I said, how much time do you spend creating content versus consuming? Well, she creates much more than she consumes, but she does spend time, like you said, commenting on other people's posts and connecting with them. But creating the content gives you authority. Speaker 3 00:28:16 Absolutely. Speaker 2 00:28:17 So that's an excellent strategy. So what? As we close out, I don't even know how to sum this up. There's been so many great gems that you've delivered. And as I said, I'll put this information in the show notes. But what would you like to close out with as your message? And then also, this is a two part question, where can people reach you and find you to explore more of what you've got and what you're offering and the future of what you're doing and how you might be able to help them. Speaker 3 00:28:51 So I'd like to leave the message that to trust your gut, trust your emotions, take that leap. Take that step. And if you don't know what is next, then write to yourself. Only this book that I mentioned. The Artist's Way really unblocks a lot of creativity within you. Just from writing to yourself endlessly for three pages, you could write anything you want. So I think that sometimes we just need to talk to ourselves so that can help us maybe unlock that next deal or help like craft a negotiation rather than just thinking in our head, putting that action to paper. Speaker 3 00:29:33 And then, yeah, if people want to find me, they can find me absolutely. On LinkedIn. Lauren Gibson or you can go to my website, Lauren Rose gibson.com, where you can book a meeting with me or find me again, as I said there on LinkedIn. Speaker 4 00:29:49 Well, from. Speaker 2 00:29:50 Beginning with selling Cutco knives, you've had quite a life in the last. I don't know how many years since then. I don't know, but, it's interesting. The same concepts have applied through your life, but also that aspect of content creation for others. But also to get to know yourself better, I think, is excellent advice. So, Lauren, I really appreciate you spending this time on my podcast with me. Listeners are really in for a treat and, hope to do it again. So Lauren, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Speaker 3 00:30:27 Thank you Kay. A pleasure to be here. Speaker 1 00:30:31 Thanks for listening to this episode of Uncomfortable Women in Sales, your source for secrets you can use to make more sales. Speaker 1 00:30:38 Check the show notes for links and contact information, and if you enjoyed the podcast, please spread the word by subscribing, sharing and leaving a five star review. You can always learn more by going to UN Copyable Sales compered cast. Until next time, go out and supercharge your sales like a true unconquerable rockstar.