Crafting an Engaging Elevator Pitch with Glenn Rudin

Jon Coogan (00:04.311)
unlock the secrets to powerful messaging and branding with a message master himself, stay tuned as Glenn Rudin reveals how to turn your words into magnets for success. Welcome to today's episode of Mindset Mavericks, where we dive deep into the world of messaging and branding with none other than Glenn Rudin, also known as a message master. With over 35 years of experience in consumer packaged goods, Glenn has transformed countless business and careers by helping individuals and companies communicate their value with crystal clarity.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a student looking to make a mark, Glenn's insights into verbal and nonverbal messaging will guide you to attract clients or employees you desire. Let's get ready to power up your pitch and break through to new heights. So welcome, Glenn. We're thrilled to have you on the show today. Your expertise in messaging branding is pretty legendary, and I know our listeners are eager to learn from the message master himself. How are you doing today?

Glenn Rudin (00:59.128)
John, yeah, I'm doing great, John. And it is really exciting for me, based on this technology, to get to interact with you and have an appearance here on Mindset Mavericks. And I'm excited to talk with you and share what your audience hopefully will find are some great tips that they can use really to maximize their potential as well. thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Jon Coogan (01:24.407)
Well, I've no doubt there's going to be a lot of things for my audience and myself to be taken away. But I know we just touched on that you are known as the message master. So can you tell me a little bit about your journey and how you became known as the message master?

Glenn Rudin (01:39.598)
Yeah, interestingly enough, this all happened about three or four years ago, not the 35 years of experience that you mentioned before, but just this handle as the message master. And I don't know how familiar you are or your audience will be with an app that got very popular during the pandemic called Clubhouse. And it's still around and I'm still actually on that on a weekly basis. I've got a show inside a club

but one of the rooms that I regularly attended there, which was heavily attended by people from around the world, and there were different quote unquote experts.

that were giving advice along the way. And very often, people would come into the room who were exactly as you said, students, entrepreneurs, small business owners, who seemed to be struggling with what they needed to say about their businesses so that it was immediately and readily understood so that people could interact with them or could recommend people that might want to work with

And I started doing this in real time. It's a difficult enough thing to do when someone says, you know, here's a few things about me. Maybe you could go to the drawing board, come back to me a week later and let me know what you would say if you were me. But this was in real time, real voice audio happening immediately. And one after another.

Jon Coogan (02:57.985)
Hmm.

Glenn Rudin (03:11.406)
I was able to perform this. It was almost like a parlor trick. People would come up and talk about themselves a little bit and then people would get me, you got to talk to Glenn. He's the message master. And it really started to stick. And I said, you know, I, as a branding guy, I love having a handle which enables me and just a couple of words to tell people the kinds of things I like doing for them. So I heard it over and over and over and people really started to referring to me.

as that and I said, you know what? It fits, it's comfortable. I like it. It's understandable. It's good branding. I'm going to go with it. And that's how I started using that handle going probably on about three or four years now.

Jon Coogan (03:53.303)
Which is, yeah, it's a great skill to have and a great nickname as well. So like I say, it tells you exactly what we need to know about yourself really and what you can do. Cause I think one of the things that I certainly struggle with is that what you call an elevator pitch where I do feel like I'm involved in a of different things and lot of different areas, whether it's e -commerce or consultancy or podcasting and trying to have that short elevator pitch. So what do I actually do? Trying to explain that to somebody in quite a succinct way can be really difficult.

Glenn Rudin (04:24.35)
really difficult. And what ends up happening is we as business people

have a tendency to confuse these elevator pitches tremendously in our ill -guided attempts to try to make them sound more complicated, more serious, too long, too confusing in terms of what we're really trying to do with people.

And so one of the things that I try to explain all the time to people is that, listen, here's the number one thing you need to take away from an elevator pitch. You're not selling anybody anything. No one on that.

theoretical elevator ride is taking out their credit card or their Apple Pay or their checkbook if people still carry those and handing you money for this pitch that you just did. The real idea is that during that ride, you want to say something, John, that is interesting enough so that that person doesn't want to run off the elevator. They either want to keep riding with you or get off the elevator with you and say what you just said on that ride in those

seconds was really interesting or really compelling or something that really affects me and I'd like to hear more about what you do to fix that, to make it better, to interact with that and that's really the key that most people miss.

Glenn Rudin (05:55.522)
We put all this pressure on ourselves thinking, hey, if I say the right thing right now, John's gonna hire me as his coach or John's going to buy my product line or John's going to come to my Airbnb or John's going to buy my cure. And that's not what we're looking for in that pitch. So that's the number one thing that

just don't seem to understand. And that's one of the things I love enlightening them about. It's not about selling, it's about engagement.

Jon Coogan (06:26.357)
Yeah, I think one of the words in particular used there was about a compelling message. And that can be difficult to come up with. So what are some of key elements to make up a compelling message? How do you go about that?

Glenn Rudin (06:38.146)
This is also a great question. So the way that I teach my clients how to create a great elevator pitch or when I'm trying to work one out with them is to try to come up, you said the word compelling and that's really it, either compelling or relatable. So it can be phrased as a question at the top of your pitch or a statistic that's relevant to the audience that's hearing

So as an example, for me, where I'm trying to help people with their elevator pitch or trying to help them be more clearly understood, I will typically start out one of my pitches and say, John, did you know that nine out of 10 people that I come in contact with struggle with their communication skill, struggle with their branding and their messaging? And that's because they are either afraid of public speaking,

or they're not well organized or they're not intentional about the way they're going about doing it. The great news is I've got simple methods that will help them understand how to be compelling, how to be interesting, and to get the follow -up that they need to create meaningful conversations. The key there is at the top of that, I'm saying nine out of 10 people struggle with something. And so when I say that, right off the bat, 90%, that means there's a good chance

that you who are listening to me right now might struggle with something along those lines and might be willing to say, maybe not raise your hand in front of your peers, but after I've made this pitch at a meeting or on a Zoom call, get in touch with me and say, I heard what you said there about all these people who struggle with what you help them with, how do you go about helping them? And that's really what we're looking for. So by using a statistic or a question,

Let's say in your case, you're trying to get people more involved in wanting to be here as a part of mindset mavericks. And you would come on and say, so many people in the world think that they want to be podcast hosts and they think that it's really difficult to do. But I've got a proven method where I can train you on how to do that. And I'm starting a class on it next week.

Glenn Rudin (08:58.762)
It's not that difficult. It's something you can master. And then we throw your name and your contact information in at the end. In other words, we're trying to put something out there that we know some portion, hopefully a big portion of the audience that's listening is really interested in knowing more about. If you relate this to, if you're in the training space as a personal trainer,

people, 90%, 80 % of people quit their exercise programs within the first two weeks. And it's a terrible shame because they're not properly coached on how to start when they haven't even really ever been in an exercise program to start with. So these are things that get people who are in the audience, who might be considering something like that, more or less introduced to the concept by somebody who's an expert in the field.

who potentially can help

Jon Coogan (09:58.951)
But yes, that is really interesting. I think one of the things you're talking about is making sure it resonates with the person. I think too often we do see companies putting a message out and making it too much about themselves as a company and not the person to try and speak to. So yeah, it's definitely something that resonates with me as well. Just trying to make sure you do make that person you're trying to speak to the center of the conversation rather than making it about the business itself, which I feel like a lot of companies do fall down.

Glenn Rudin (10:28.642)
Right, right. And think about it this way, too. This is one of the keys that I always try to share with everybody. Not everybody who's hearing your elevator pitch is necessarily your client or customer. But I guarantee you that within their network, at least one person, if not multiple people, are people that would be interested in what you're saying. And that's why it's so important to be clear.

on the value that you provide.

and how you address a particular situation that's pervasive in the marketplace so that maybe you, John, are not interested in help with your branding, messaging, elevator pitching. But there's a really good chance that you've got a friend, a business associate, somebody else that you've worked with that you've had on your podcast who would be. And so now you've heard my pitch and say, wow, I don't really need this, but so and so could really use this. And I'd love to introduce them to Glenn.

So that's a key. Not everyone sitting there is necessarily a customer, but we want to make this relatable enough so that they can understand what it is you do and why somebody they know, if not themselves, might be interested.

Jon Coogan (11:45.675)
Yeah, we're talking a bit about why it's important, but, it might seem quite obvious why it's important to get effective messaging out for businesses or individuals, but why is it so, so important to get that effective message out? And what are the pitfalls if you don't do it in the right way?

Glenn Rudin (11:59.138)
Well, yeah, the thing is, and it's a great question also, you're great at doing this. These are all really compelling questions, really great ones.

We in our world today, and you know, you and I were talking in the virtual back room for a couple of minutes about how many different things are going on. So we both know and everybody listening knows we're really distracted between email, social media, personal commitments, all these different things going on. We are besieged all day long with messaging, with messages, with commercials, with opportunities and with offers.

And when our messaging is not crystal clear, when someone doesn't immediately understand the value of what's being offered, they don't have the time to sit and ponder it. They don't have the time to try and look up some complicated phrase or something that somebody put together that just is not making sense to them. They just basically dismiss it.

and move on to the next message that they get. And so to me, it's imperative that whatever message you're putting out there has got to be crystal clear. And even if it is, with all those distractions that I spoke about, it still might take what, four, five, six, seven, I've even heard up to 10 times in terms of the frequency that somebody hears that message for it to break through.

But if it's bad messaging, it doesn't matter if you hear it 100 times, it's not going to break through. And so it's super important for people to understand why it's got to be succinct, why it's got to be compelling, why it's got to be relatable. Right out of the gate, there's really no time for us, even if you've got our attention. If the message doesn't come out immediately and it's not compelling and it's not exciting, or doesn't capture our attention, then we stop paying attention

Glenn Rudin (14:02.684)
and now we're looking around at the next Instagram that just came through. What's the next thing that just beeped on my computer? Who's looking for me? What time do I have to leave? When's my next meeting? So that messaging has got to be crystal clear. And look, one of the things that we need to do is we need to get out of our own silo, so to speak, where we're really close to it. And maybe we think what we're saying is clear, but have you asked a friend? Have you asked an associate?

Would you mind for two seconds just listening to this pitch? Tell me if this is resonating with you. If this would get you off your chair, if this would get you to click on a link, if this would get you to get in touch with somebody who you know this might be interesting for. Because that's important also, right? We need to have that kind of feedback. Not all of us can afford, you know, to hire a consultant and get into a major research study on focus groups and things like

But it's not that difficult to ask somebody you're close to, does this, what I'm saying, does it make sense? And does it make you want to do something?

Jon Coogan (15:08.787)
And I think even just going back yourself, because quite often you can write an email, think, it's an amazing email or amazing LinkedIn post, for example, and go back to it half an hour later and think, actually, no, that's not that good. And I think just with the saturation there is now with the amount of social media of all the different social platforms, you really do have to get that hook and get that engagement. Like I say, just so succinct and so quickly, especially with things like TikTok, I think it said

that unless you've got a good hook within about three seconds, you're passed by.

Glenn Rudin (15:41.678)
Really, really true. And then, you know, another one of the big mistakes that people make, John, is they don't say stay consistent, right? They'll put out a message today on Tuesday. And if it doesn't immediately get 20, 50, 100, whatever your goal is, likes or interactions. Now I'm going to go back to the drawing board and do something completely different, which is the absolute opposite.

of really what you need to do. Consistency with messaging is almost as important as being crystal clear with the messaging, because we have to imagine that when we put something out there in the world on LinkedIn or on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook, right, we like to think that, gee, everybody that I know is going to see this. It's going to go right to the top of their inbox. It's going to be something that they all want to see. And the truth is, that's not what happens. And so

who are impatient will put out a message and think, gee, that one didn't work too well, I better put out something else. I better put out something else. Often I will go to people's Instagram accounts when I'm reviewing with them as one of my clients. And it's almost like I have whiplash. Today we're here, tomorrow we're here, today we're here, today we're here.

And there's no consistency to any of it. And people think that, well, I think people will get bored with my message. it's like, be realistic. 99 .9 % of the world has never seen your message. You could probably put the same one out for a hundred straight days and have a different audience the way these algorithms work. Now, I don't know how the social media apps themselves would treat that, but it would be a really interesting study to

if I put it out early in the morning, middle of the day, late at night, same message over and over and over again, what kind of reactions would finally somebody say?

Glenn Rudin (17:39.394)
how come you're putting out the same message over and over again? It would be really interesting social commentary to just know that. And for all of us who are out here trying to find the secret formula to understand that most people are never hearing your message. And if you're lucky, they're getting to hear it a second or a third time and just maybe it will start to sink in.

Jon Coogan (18:01.407)
Is there any tips you can give? Because what you've just described, can be disheartening if you're putting out a message. And like I say, if you're quite new to posting on social media, for example, you're not seeing traction quite quickly. Is there any tips or tricks you could give to make sure that you are being consistent in the messaging you're giving?

Glenn Rudin (18:19.59)
Yeah, it's another great question, John. And I would say this. The number one thing is you, the person who's writing the message and assuming it's a clear message and it's well thought out and you've gotten some feedback on it and other people understand what it is. You cannot get bored with your own subject matter.

Of course, you're the one closest to it. And maybe for me, I don't want to do another post on an elevator pitch or how to do a great introduction. But again, going back to the point I just made previously, 99 % of the world has not seen that previous message. And so if I truly want to be known as the message master, or I want to be known as a guy who's an expert on branding, on messaging, on business strategy, I've got to make sure

that I check myself and everything that I'm putting out there is consistent so that chances are if anybody does see something that they like and then they go to my feed and they start looking back over some of the previous ones that I've done, I wanna make sure that I'm showing up authentically and consistently with that same messaging over and over because someone looks at that and they go, this guy really does speak.

to the topics that he says he's a quote unquote expert in. And if I go through his feed and I go through the last 20, 50, 100, even more posts, that's what I'm going to see. I'm not going to see a guy who wants to be a comedian today and come up with some funny skit or some funny meme. And tomorrow I'm going to try to be serious about this. And then the next day I'm going to try to find the most interesting music loop to attach to it. For me, consistency.

just past and just below being crystal clear are the two keys for me that somebody really has got to be focused on.

Jon Coogan (20:17.877)
Hmm. You know, that's really good advice. And I think from, certainly from what I'm getting from your messages, it's all really around being authentic and focusing on what you are good at and what your niche is just staying. I wouldn't say in your lane, but recognizing where you want your messaging to be and stay authentic to, to what you're putting out. I've definitely been guilty of jumping around a bit and like you say, you're trying to try and see what the trends are and, and not really staying true to.

yourself, which I think is really what you're saying with your messaging.

Glenn Rudin (20:49.08)
So here's a really good example that I would use here. And while I'm not a huge fan, usually I will say the Rolling Stones. I am a big fan of the Rolling Stones. I was going to use Taylor Swift, but I'll use the Rolling Stones because they've just been around since the early 60s. When they go out and they're still out unbelievably in their 80s touring and supposedly still doing great shows.

When they show up and they do Brown Sugar or Wild Horses or whatever Jumpin' Jack Flash, whatever song you can think of, they, number one, they really can't leave those out of their act because it's consistent with who they are and what their messaging is. But they also recognize the fact that, number one, they're potentially playing to a completely new audience that's never seen them perform before.

they're playing to a young audience that probably wasn't even, we know they weren't around when the Rolling Stones got their start. And yet every time they show up, they're going to do a consistent job delivering their music the way it should sound, the way it should be performed. In other words, they're not getting bored with it and saying, guess what, know, this time we're gonna show up and our entire act is going to be a reggae act because we'd like

turn all the stone songs into a reggae act. And now all these people who showed up and paid hundreds and hundreds of pounds or dollars to be in the audience are going to be tremendously disappointed. So if you imagine yourself and you've got your greatest hits and understand that most of your audience is not familiar with your greatest hits, you need to keep performing your greatest hits consistently, just like those famous artists do.

until such point that the world is saturated with you and you've now got an endless stream of people who understand exactly what you do and why you do it.

Jon Coogan (22:48.489)
Yeah, I absolutely love that. So it's definitely something I need to take away and focus on a bit more myself. What I'd like to ask you about is just if you've got any examples or case studies where you can show or tell us about how a powerful message has transformed a business or a client, is there anything that you can think of that comes to mind?

Glenn Rudin (23:08.684)
Well, interestingly enough, one of my clients that came to me was somebody who was really, she had been in corporate sales, pharmaceutical sales for a long, long time. But her dream really was to open up her own private chef business. And she's in the Northwest in the United States in the Seattle area.

And so the first thing that that I was able to come up with for her was this great name and URL that was available called Your Gourmet Chef, which we're both scratching our heads and saying, how in the world was that not available? And it just completely lent itself to exactly the business that she wanted to go into, which was the idea of cooking Michelin star meals inside clients' homes. So instead of going

for an expensive gourmet meal. She comes to your house, she prepares, brings the ingredients based on the menu that you choose, and she prepares, you know, fresh, delicious five -star meals right in your own home. So we were able, number one, to just create this handle, Your Gourmet Chef. And the idea was, again, from a messaging standpoint,

You don't have to spend all this time and energy trying to get a reservation in some expensive place where you might not be happy with the table or the location. Let me come into your home and create that experience in your own kitchen for you and your guests. What a great experience for you to have and what an unforgettable experience for you and your guests to go through. And this was a great example for her and she's become quite

at doing this up in her area. And the challenge there for her was breaking through to customers.

Glenn Rudin (25:09.422)
that really didn't have wallet considerations for what they were going to spend on food. They were going to go out and spend $1 ,000 on a meal for four people in a gourmet restaurant up in Seattle in the States, which is a real foodie city. And she now is able to compete with those restaurants with a great message. And it's been very successful for her.

Jon Coogan (25:34.571)
Yeah, and that sounds like a fantastic idea. I'd love the idea of that. And like I say, being able to have such a wonderful meal in your own home, great quality, unique experience, something which is a little bit different. now I think that's, yeah, it's a great example you've used. And just talking about messaging and ways of delivering messaging, how important is nonverbal communication in delivering messages?

Glenn Rudin (25:57.984)
Yeah, this is another one that people look over in terms of how important it is. When we human beings come in contact with one another, more than half of us immediately begin to judge somebody based on their appearance.

And when I say based on their appearance, so it's not just your attire, are you dressed appropriately for the business that you work on, but it's also your body language, your positivity, the energy that you're giving off. In other words, if we look at it on a scale of 100 and we start assigning, we take five categories and we say, you dressed appropriately? What does your posture look like? When you come into the room, do you have great energy?

Do you seem like somebody who is confident and prepared? And we look at the spectrum of all those different things with each one. And I forgot to say, and are we dressed appropriately for the appearance that we're making for any of the ones that I named that are less than 20 points so that now instead of at 100, you're now at 75 or at 65 or 60.

you are dramatically decreasing your chances of breaking through with the person who you are meeting with. And that's because your nonverbals are super important because people want to do business with people who are confident, who are projecting a winner, who seem like somebody that is positive in their field and knows what they're doing. And so we can't arrive late and we can't arrive dressed

and make all kinds of excuses for why this has gone wrong or that's gone wrong. And when we finally do get a chance to speak, we need to be ready. We need to be leaning into the conversation, making eye contact. And when any of those things are missing, we as human beings, we detect weakness, we sense weakness, and we

Glenn Rudin (28:03.466)
start to shy away from somebody who is not projecting that kind of confidence. In other words, people want to be around winners and people who have winning confident attitudes. And so I try to tell this to the students that I get to work with, right? There's an entire hallway of students that are going to be interviewing for this internship or for this job. And the moment the door opens and you walk into the door and sit

You're already telling us a whole lot about you. Are you having a bad day and letting that creep into what you're doing here? Are you not really feeling confident? Is this not really a position that you want or are you ill prepared for the interview you're about to go into? Well, the same could be said for business meetings, right? You finally got that potential client.

who's gonna be sitting on the other side of the table and you're going to want them to agree to some kind of exchange for goods and services, for money on their part, and now you don't project confidence. And that's what they want from you. They wanna know that you've got the solution, that you are the right coach, or you've got the right business, or you've got the right real estate for them. And when you don't project that confidence, they start thinking in their heads, hmm.

maybe this isn't the right person after all, because they don't really seem so sure about what they're saying themselves. And usually the number one thing that causes all that is lack of preparation. You didn't put enough time into it ahead of time, now you're showing up and you're kind of pretending a bit and you're not as authentic as we need you to be if we're actually thinking about handing you money or making a commitment to you.

So that confidence that you ask about is super important.

Jon Coogan (29:51.199)
It's it's really a two -part question. I'm going to, going to go on to ask you, and it's around some quick tips for communication, but I was wondering your thoughts on, is there things you'll do differently in person than doing a meeting online, for example, for the first time? obviously a lot of the world now has moved to online meetings, podcasts, for example, like right now it's doing remotely. How would you differentiate what you do to bolster that initial communication?

Glenn Rudin (30:19.406)
Right. So if we if we take the virtual first, one of the things that we must understand is that the camera that you use, whether it's built into your computer or it's like mine, I've got a separate one that's sitting here on top of my monitor. And anybody who's who's seeing this podcast will notice that I'm spending 90 percent of it looking at my camera as if I'm looking at you.

That's number one. The camera really drinks up your eye contact just like a person would in person. And if I'm now staring around the room and I seem like I'm searching for answers or I'm looking down for notes and things like that, it shows a lack of preparation in terms of what I'm doing. It takes some getting used to to stare at a camera and talk to it like it's a person. But it is a discipline that is an absolute must.

in virtual meetings. Second one that's super important, you have got to be well lit. So many times I will see on group Zoom calls or even one -on -one Zoom calls, people look like they're coming to me from some secret bunker, know, high in the mountains where, you know, they're waiting for the world to potentially come to an end.

We need you to come out of that darkness. We need to see your face as much as we possibly can and be able to look into your eyes. So your lighting, which needs to be in front of you so that your face is illuminated and we can actually see who we're speaking to, is super important as well as your framing. And then the last piece of this that I'll mention is when you're doing a virtual meeting, John, you are bringing your entire background with you. Now here, I'm talking to you in front of a green screen.

Normally in a Zoom environment, I've got a really nice backdrop or a solid color that I'm coming to you from. But again, very often I will see people in odd places in basements, sitting at desks with half a window behind them. And so the light is shining from behind them and now they appear to be in shadow or we can see the mess behind them in their office. And I understand not everybody is a total

Glenn Rudin (32:36.062)
a neat person that's going to have everything arranged behind you. And so if you don't have the ability because of your technology to have a virtual background, you've got to be very careful about what you're projecting behind you. So those are really, really important things to keep in mind when you're doing it in the virtual space.

When you're doing it in the live space, of course, the number one thing you need to do is make sure you're on time, make sure you're dressed appropriately and that you've gotten to the agreed upon place you're going to be meeting early so that you can scout out a good seat where you and the person you're going to be meeting with will have an opportunity for good, quiet conversation. And here you just really want to be well prepared.

to be able to again make eye contact with someone, look them in the eye and show them that you're confident enough in yourself that you believe you've got the right solution for them and you want to project that confidence to them. And that's true whether we're talking on camera or whether we're talking face to face. Both have challenges that are unique to them, but both also present us with great opportunities here being a great opportunity for me and the states to be talking to you in the

which is, you know, before the last four five years was really, you know, something that only big corporations had access to. Now we all do. And so it's important that we utilize these tools in a way that is positive for us and projects the image that we want it to

Jon Coogan (34:07.9)
Yeah, some really good takeaways. And like I say, it's only literally within the last five years or so that people have been using technology, particularly since COVID. I think some of the key takeaways I'd take from what you've just said really was maintaining that good eye contact, maintain looking at the camera, having good lighting. And it is so cheap to get now as well as you can get lighting for.

say 20, 25, $30 or 20 pounds in the UK. So it's not difficult to get that now, which is amazing. So it definitely opens up a whole new world having this kind of technology available.

Glenn Rudin (34:41.058)
Yeah, unless we could just also throw in, it doesn't hurt to invest in a camera if you're going to be doing a lot of these calls. And you certainly should be investing in a good microphone, which again, these are investments in your business. you know, they're almost...

you know, assets that you're investing in because if you get a good camera today, it should work for you for the next three years. So if you amortize, you know, a couple hundred dollars over, you know, the next 36 months, it's not a huge investment. Same thing with a good microphone because these are the things that will make you look better and sound better on the calls that you're on. And it just all goes to professionalism and you wanting to invest in yourself. And we'll throw in also

wardrobe. What do you look like when you're showing up for these meetings? Do you look like somebody who we want to be around or are you looking a bit messy and you need to work on that wardrobe? Because again, we go back to what's the first impression that you're creating, which again happens in just a few seconds of somebody coming in contact with you.

Jon Coogan (35:50.262)
You've just given a few examples of bad examples of what not to do, but particularly in terms of branding and messaging, what are some of the common mistakes people might make when they're starting out with their branding or trying to get a message out there? Do you see common mistakes or things that just don't quite hit the mark?

Glenn Rudin (36:10.646)
Right. Well, the first one that is painfully obvious is there's no intentionality about what they want that brand to be. And I'll use this in terms of a personal brand. don't typically, if they're not in the space of branding or marketing, they may not even really be familiar with that. They're hearing it because of social media, personal branding, but they might not really be familiar with the concept.

And the essence of a personal brand is this. Once you've been in someone's presence,

and you've performed your pitch or had a conversation or had some interaction with that person and you now leave the space, what is the essence that you've left behind? What would somebody say about you once you've left, once you've made the impression on them? Is it positive? Is it negative? What are the adjectives that they would use to describe you? Were you professional? Were you prepared? Were you serious? Were you of good word?

knowledge about what you were speaking about and all of those things start adding up to being your personal brand. And the way that you start to take control of that intentionally is by figuring out exactly who are you and what do you want to project to the world. And your personal brand can be different than your private brand. In other words, how does your family

members or your close friends see you when you're not in a business setting, right? There's a good chance that a lot of the famous people that we see on television, Taylor Swift or JLo or you pick your favorite celebrity or athlete. When we see them on camera, they're projecting hopefully a positive image about who they are because they wanna pick up.

Glenn Rudin (38:07.786)
endorsements, they want to be taken seriously. And they're coached on that to say, listen, when you get the chance to get on mic after the game, when you've been the big star, or after the show, when someone's interviewing you after you've won an award, you need to sound intelligent, you need to sound positive, you need to sound like a good spokesperson for yourself. And when people come out and they do the opposite, and they don't sound well spoken, or they sound poorly educated,

They are cutting off opportunities for themselves. So for me, the number one thing, John, is being intentional about it. I actually have a worksheet that I provide to people for free. It's a personal branding worksheet where you actually pick adjectives that you would use or you want to use to describe the personal brand that you want to project to the world. And then it becomes important to write them down and review them and make sure every time

you're going out in public, every time you're doing a post, you look at those adjectives and you say, I being true to what I want my personal brand to be? So the number one thing that people need to do is to be intentional. Most people arrive at these things by accident. They don't have any intentionality about them. And so they just show up as however they show up. And one week they might be in a good mood and show up as this upbeat bubbly person.

The next week maybe something happened and they're not feeling as positive about things and they wear that emotion on their sleeves as opposed to somebody else who's taken the time to really study this and say no matter what's going on with me, before I step into that room, before I turn on this camera, I am going to get into my character, into my personal brand and project this image that I want the world to see. Hopefully that makes sense.

Jon Coogan (39:59.798)
Absolutely. think that's some really, really good things that definitely resonate with me. One of the activities that I've done previously is literally write down your 10 top values and beliefs. write, as you've said, write those down and slowly narrow it down to once you've got your 10, have a look through them, which one is the most important, get rid of the bottom five, for example.

So you're left with your top five values and beliefs. Do that again until you're down to three and you've got your most important values and beliefs, whether that's integrity, kindness, whatever those might be. just like you say, just focus your messaging on those values. Make sure that anything you're putting out does align to what your most important values are. So it's definitely something that's resonated to me.

Glenn Rudin (40:50.318)
Right, mean, when I was a kid in school, and I'm sure you experienced this also, there was always another student somewhere in pretty much every class, even I've even seen this in the business world, somebody who was the class clown.

And that person would consistently show up in class and always try to do something to disrupt the teacher, to say something funny, to get attention for what they were doing. So their personal brand, even at that young age, they weren't really aware of it. I don't know if they were doing it intentionally or if they had some other issue that caused them to act this way.

but their personal brand was the class clown. And so every time you were in a class with that person, that's who you were expecting to show up. And that became their handle. Now, some people relish that role because it was the one way that they could be well -known or popular.

in their circles. I'm not sure it served them well with the teachers or with their education, but it's just a great example of somebody always showing up wanting to be funny, wearing the hat backwards, making some funny noise, doing whatever those different things were for your particular class clown. That became their personal brand. And the other thing about that is once you had that image, it was really tough to shake. And the lesson there

It's really difficult to change people's first impressions of you. That first impression is the one that typically stays with somebody. So every chance you get to make a great impression, bring your personal branding that you've decided that you want to be known as to those meetings.

Glenn Rudin (42:36.362)
and you keep hammering that home over and over and over again. And eventually people start saying, the message master, Glenn the message master is here. Because every time I showed up in one of those situations, I was showing up as that handle, as that message master. And so every time somebody would see my face pop up theoretically in that room, they knew that's what I was there to do.

Jon Coogan (43:03.099)
You mentioned about being attached to labels and that's something that can be quite tricky to change. If there's anyone that's listening, did want to pivot and start trying to change how they are perceived, is there anything specific that you would recommend for those individuals to do? So for those class clowns or someone who's been seen a particular way for most of their life and they want to start changing how they're identified by other people, is there any particular tips you could give those people?

Glenn Rudin (43:29.89)
Well, again, I think the number one thing that we have to do in that particular situation is realize number one, now, you know, this is like, you know, to use a war term, this is like turning a battleship around. I've already staked out this space for myself, and now I want to come at it as a completely different person. What you have to realize is it's going to take some time for the people who you are in contact with. If in fact, you're dealing with the same group of people who know you in

way to get used to the fact that you're no longer going to be Mr. or Miss funny, that now you're showing up, you're being a bit mature, you understand that, you know, there's different things that you want to accomplish. And so you're you're turning it around, so to speak. And so you just have to give it time because

probably the first half dozen times you show up, everyone's gonna be on the edge of their seat waiting for you to be this person who they've always known as this person who is laughable or this person who doesn't wanna be taken serious. And in a sense now you're going to be letting them down because they've come to know you and take you in, in that role. Now they've got to retrain their minds and say, wow, look at that. He or she is really

turning it around. They're no longer going with that old handle. They found something new that they're going with. Hopefully those people can applaud you for recognizing that what you were doing wasn't working and you want to go in a new direction. But you've also got to

tough enough and have thick enough skin to get through the first half to dozen times that somebody might say, hey, say something funny. Hey, say something funny because you no longer want to be known as that person. So you need to give people notice so that they're not completely shocked and say, listen, you know, I know in the past I've always come to you and I've tried to

Glenn Rudin (45:31.778)
this funny person, but I'm going to take a different tack now going forward. you know, here's a really interesting example of somebody that was doing that here that I was interacting with. There's an insurance company here called Aflac. I don't know if it's in the UK or other parts of the world, but they rely on, it's an insurance company and they sell insurance for people who have gaps in their regular insurance. It's a

serious thing that somebody needs to address in their own personal life. But the company itself has decided that they, for the most part, want to take a humorous approach to it. A lot of the insurance companies here in the States do that. They do that to get attention. For me, I'm not sure it's really the best approach for them.

But one of the people that worked for that company that used to come to some of the networking meetings I would go to, he decided that he was going to carry that humor into these meetings. And yet he was a guy who was trying to sell insurance policies, very serious stuff to people. And I always thought it was a huge miss for him.

but he would keep on doing it over and over again and wonder, yeah, wonder why nobody is coming to me for their insurance needs. And it's like, it's no wonder they're coming to you because they might want to have a comedian at their next dinner party, but they're certainly not thinking of you as a guy that is going to be able to sell them a serious product like health insurance. So, you know, just a clear example.

to give everybody an idea about that. And there's a guy who, again, if he now started showing up a bit more seriously, it would take him a half a dozen of these meetings if he started to turn it around to change his reputation, to change his handle and show people, guess what? I've gotten a little bit more serious about this now, and I really wanna tell you the serious reasons why you need to be picking up this kind of insurance.

Jon Coogan (47:32.311)
That's actually a really empowering message just hearing that it can happen firstly and also that having that recognition that it can take a long time. And I think that's something you mentioned earlier as well about being consistent and just keep plugging away. So don't put one message out and change it the next week. It's just that consistency knowing that it can take time can actually be quite empowering.

Jon Coogan (47:58.625)
Talking of which, moving on to talking about power, one of the things that you do deliver, I know you do a keynote speech around power up your pitch. I just wanted to ask a little bit about that and what kind of things that people can come to you for and what that keynote speech and some of the things that you do offer, what can you provide?

Glenn Rudin (48:16.118)
Yeah, I appreciate that question too. I love being a keynote speaker or somebody who delivers workshops to individuals or companies or, you know, big meetings as well. And power up your pitch is the word power is an acronym.

that I created to highlight the different things that I think are so important when it comes to creating a great message for yourself. So powering up your pitch, the letters in power, stand for the P is about being professional in terms of the way you dress, the way you prepare for your meetings. And for some of the younger people, this is a word of advice, be careful about the social media posts that you're putting out there

in school, because eventually somebody who's an employer is going to take a look at what you're putting out there and you don't want to do anything that's potentially going to be fun for five minutes on your social media, but then be detrimental to your potentially getting hired by an employer that you really want to work for. So the P in power is professional. The O in power is for organized because every pitch has got to have a great introduction, which we spoke about a bit

earlier, something compelling, something interesting that you're going to stay at the top of your pitch. And you're going to want to follow it up with something that's unique to the way you deal with that problem. And you want to make it all engaging. So that's all about the organization of a great pitch. And that really takes time to sit down and do the blocking and tackling the actual writing out of what you want that message to be. The W in PowerJohn is for well spoken, because there

no place in a great pitch for filler words like ums and ahs and hesitations, which you'll normally hear people who are not well prepared will use to fill in dead space inside of their pitches. So that W is for being well spoken. And that's all about rehearsing. That's all about being prepared ahead of time, knowing what you want to say and being confident in being able to deliver that while making eye contact. The

Glenn Rudin (50:33.684)
in power is for effective. We spoke about this a bit earlier also. The idea of a great pitch in terms of it being effective is to give us just a little sample of what it is your entire concept is about so that we're interested in hearing more. Best example of

is if somebody was sitting at dinner and they had a great piece of dessert, a great piece of cake, and they said, would you like to, this is really the best piece of cake I ever had. You wouldn't give them the entire piece of cake. I certainly wouldn't because I'm a cake lover, but you might say, why don't you take a forkful and taste

and you'll see how great it is and then maybe you'll want to get a piece for yourself. So the idea here in terms of being effective is are we getting the reactions we want? Are people following up and saying, I got that, I want more. I heard what you said, I want more information. So just a sample, not the entire concept of what your company is all about. And then finally, the R, empowering up your pitch is all about respect.

And when I say respect, the idea here is I want people who I work with to go back and look over their business careers and understand all the heartache, all the sweat, all the toil that went into getting them to where they are now. I want them to take a look at some of the more meaningful moments in their life. I call this mining your history for storytelling gold. I want you to recollect some of the things that you've been through on your journey to get here.

Because when you do that, it gives you a newfound respect for yourself. And when you start to feel like you respect yourself, you will be surprised at how much respect you get from the people who are watching you do what you do and who are getting to hear what your journey was getting to this place. And until, in my judgment, until you respect yourself, you're going to have a hard time getting respect from the people who are hearing you.

Glenn Rudin (52:37.708)
So those are the letters in powering up your potential. And of course, I get into much deeper examples of all of these. It's a great keynote for companies that have outward facing salespeople, for college students, we turn that into powering up your potential. And it's just a great summary of a lot of things that people lose track of or don't take the time to do. And when they leave that, especially the storytelling part of it.

It's really uplifting for them to hear.

Jon Coogan (53:08.983)
But yeah, it's very good place to near the end as well, think. Thank you, Clarence. And one of things you did touch on in the power section is respect. And I know we've not spoken much about your previous careers and what you've done for the last 35 years, but I've got a huge amount of respect for your career and what's brought you to where you are now. But one of the things I wanted to ask you about, because being an entrepreneur and in business definitely isn't easy, is there a particular time or challenging time you can think of in your career?

where you've overcome something, overcome a significant challenge and can you tell us about that at all?

Glenn Rudin (53:47.342)
Well, there certainly are a lot of them along the way as anybody who's had a long career can attest to. One of them for me, one of the most pivotal was when I was still working here in corporate America in Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 companies, I really wanted to get involved in how companies had started to turn.

to Asia, to China in particular for sourcing and creating their products. And one of the companies that I was working for

sourced 100 % of its products from overseas. And I really, really wanted to get overseas and understand how they did that work. And on a couple of different occasions, they would have people who were in my position as a national account director go overseas and get to spend time in the factories that they utilized to manufacture their goods. And I was turned down on a number of occasions and told, listen, we've got a great product

And I resented that. really did, because I felt as a creative guy that if I had the chance to go overseas, I'd come back with some tremendous ideas that the company could put into practice or into new products. And so the first opportunity.

that I had when one of our current customers at the time approached me and said, you know, we're looking for a company that can help us source goods from overseas. And I knew if I turn that lead over to my company that I was never going to have the opportunity to do what I wanted with that lead. And so I told that customer that company that you're looking for doesn't exist yet. But if you can give me just a couple of days.

Glenn Rudin (55:37.009)
I will get back to you with what I think would be a great opportunity.

So I hung up the phone and immediately thought about who in the world I could get in touch with that might be able to help me start my own company doing this and reached out to somebody who I knew who had a successful business in Manhattan where I was working at the time. I went and pitched him on this opportunity and he thought about it for a little bit and he gave me about a six month window to prove

my concept, which long story short, ended up becoming a great success. And I was able to call that customer with that inquiry back the next week and say that company that you were looking for that didn't exist last week, it started this week and it's here for you. And I'd love to come down and do a presentation for you and show you what it's all about.

I did do that with a team, but basically that was my start on my entrepreneurial journey. And at the time, people thought that I was really out of my mind because I had two young children, I was married, mortgages, car lease payments, all the different things that go into the mindset where people would say,

this is not a good time to go. Or before you start your company, you really should have six months or a year of savings. And what I say to those people is if you're waiting for that right time, there's a really good chance it's never going to happen because it's always difficult for that to happen. Listen, maybe you've got a shot at winning the lottery. I know they probably have a lottery over there.

Glenn Rudin (57:22.196)
and now the UK like they do here. But if you're waiting to win the lottery, you're never going to. So I say, if you've got a great idea, if you really believe in yourself, if you've taken the time to really build it out and you know what it's all about and you know you can make it a success, I say, go for it. And that's exactly what I did.

Jon Coogan (57:40.535)
That's a fantastic story. And I love how it really does tie back into that whole personal branding. It's making sure you put out a positive message, making sure that people want to work with you. And clearly that person that you went to about the business idea wanted to work with you. And that's just how much influence that having a positive brand can have on everything you do in everyday life. And you never know when that's going to come into effect. So yeah, it's a brilliant story. Thank you.

Glenn Rudin (58:08.76)
Thank you.

Jon Coogan (58:09.057)
The one thing I'll really finish with Glenn is, is there any final piece of advice that you think would be worthy to share with our listeners? One final takeaway that our listeners can take away and start using today.

Glenn Rudin (58:22.966)
Well, I think the number one thing that I want to leave your listeners with is each and every one of you has, I use that word power, has the power to make these changes in your life. Sometimes you might need a coach like me to help you realize just how gifted you are, what kind of great assets you do have. And for me, it's very fulfilling because when I can enlighten somebody about that, they feel great about

and you can see an entire weight lifted off their shoulders. I will say is if there's something you really love doing that you really want to be doing, don't wait your entire business to career to try and do that. Make sure that you take advantage of what that is now. If you're not aware of what your particular skill set or assets are.

or what you'd really love to be doing. It's time for you to take stock and think about that because every day that goes by that you're potentially doing something that's not fulfilling to you or you've got something that is fulfilling to you but you're not doing it the right way, you're really burning a lot of energy that's unnecessary. So figure out what those steps are. If you

find somebody, a coach that can help you right the ship and get it set in the right direction for you. But you, every one of you out there that's hearing my voice today and hearing John's voice today has got the power to make this happen. So don't stay on the sidelines. Do what you need to do to get out there and take advantage of the assets and the talents that you have.

Jon Coogan (01:00:07.019)
Fantastic end to the show. So I've really enjoyed having you, Glenn. I've loved hearing the insights and experiences of the message master. So I can't thank you enough for being on the show.

Glenn Rudin (01:00:17.986)
Thank you, John. It's an honor to get to speak with you on the other side of the world, and I look forward to meeting you face to face one day, but I really appreciate the opportunity to be here on Mindset Mavericks, and I hope that some of what I'm sharing today inspires people to make the changes that I know they can make.

Jon Coogan (01:00:36.075)
That's great. Thank you.