A surprising question from the men’s sauna

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A few weeks ago I joined a new gym. 

Well, sorta.

It’s one of those somewhat-fancy places that call themselves a “club.” It’s a bit expensive, but I joined because I recently renewed my commitment to fight off dad bod, and they have a few extra amenities that made me “oooo” during the tour, including a sauna. 

I’m told this is a highly effective way to recover and evict toxins from my body. So now I use it after every workout.  

But today’s story is not about why I use the sauna. It’s about what I heard inside the sauna.

Two days ago I grabbed the large wooden handle and opened the door. I saw a couple of the regulars.

One of them I see literally every time I’m there. He’s a tad older than me, stocky, rapidly balding, and (thankfully) always fully toweled. 

He’s always chatting to various older gents about investments, real estate, and other ways “money makes money”. 

Anyways. 

Another guy, silver haired and surprisingly not sweaty for having been in there for what I presume was at least a few minutes, was finishing a story. 

He was going on about how restaurant owners that are about to go out of business often stiff their vendors on the way out. 

They know they’re going out of business soon, and before the guillotine swoops down and puts them out of their misery, they rack up tons of debt with their food suppliers. Because a credit system is the norm in the restaurant industry, they take advantage of this and rack up tens of thousands of dollars in credit, then poof! — they go out of business and disappear. 

The vendors are left empty handed. 

The worst part is, so the sauna storyteller says, there is no punishment for this behavior. There are no laws (or I guess, very flimsy ones) that can hold these now failed business owners accountable. 

That’s messed up, I think to myself, glad to have a distraction from the heat barreling through my nostrils and into my lungs. 

Before the balding toweled guy replied, I noticed an unusually long pause.

Then he responded with a question that I’ve never heard anyone ask:

“Do you know this from first-hand experience?” 

My eyebrows jumped up. 

“I do,” he replied steadily. 

“I used to run a business with my brother where we bought and sold businesses, and we saw it all the time unfortunately.”

He continued on about how the Russian mob — or he thinks they were Russian — did it all the time. 

But I had checked out. My attention was stuck to that question.

“Do you know this from first-hand experience?”

I couldn’t help but think about all the bullshit on LinkedIn right now

And on all social media, honestly. 

You see it too. 

• The beautifully formatted graphic explaining “The CMO’s 90 Day Plan” — from a guy who’s never been a CMO (or anywhere close) 
  

• “How-to build a 7-figure SEO agency” — from someone who’s been doing marketing for a whopping… 10 months
  

• A sales guru shouting why Sales VPs should should fire all their SDRs tonight — even though they’ve never run a sales team a day in their life

It got me thinking, do these people really know their stuff? 

The truth is, I don’t know. And that’s the point. 

But I highly doubt it. 

How can you possibly coach people to be a CMO if you’ve never experienced the pressure, stress, and skill it takes to be one?

Maybe you’re a SEO savant, but a million dollars in ten months??

And it’s easy to talk a big game about firing people without, you know, actually dealing with the emotions of telling someone that they’ll no longer be getting that pay check they’ve come to depend.

I smell BS. 

So my point is this: Be skeptical. Take very little information at face value.

Unless you can confirm they are speaking from first-hand experience, I wouldn’t believe them with a 10-foot pole. 

(This is also why I don’t watch or listen to sports analysts who’ve never played at the professional level.)

I won’t call them out, but I know for a fact that many influencers are plagiarizing, lying, and doing anything they can to get our attention so they can monetize it. 

I talked about this in depth with Eddie Shleyner a few weeks ago. 

And here’s another point too. One that’ll make you an elite marketer:

Look for ways to include YOUR first-hand experience in your marketing 

Everyone and their mom has ChatGPT now. So effectively, everyone can “be” an expert. 

That’s why “how-to” content just ain’t cuttin’ it anymore. 

That’s also why I’m moving from “how-to” content to “how-I” content. 

I’m injecting my real-world experience, thoughts, opinions, -isms, and all into my content. 

It’ll help me stand out, sure. 

But even more so: It’s how I get people who’ve never heard of me to know, like and trust me in seconds. 

Often after just reading one post. 

Why?

Because credibility = trust. 

And trust is GOLD in a world where we can’t tell what’s real and what’s not anymore. 

Only someone who has walked a mile in your Nike Dunks can explain what it really takes — and equally importantly how it FEELS. 

That can’t be faked. Not well enough to fool you at least. 

So look at your content, marketing, and business strategy, and ask yourself:

Are you injecting your first-hand experience into it?

And is it strong enough for the bald toweled man to believe you?

Because if he doesn’t, neither will your audience or clients.

Speaking of first hand-experience…

If there’s one thing I’m good at in this world, it’s creating compelling content. 

And the channels that I’m best at are LinkedIn and email. Hands down. 

To be more specific, I know how to use these channels to create tons of inbound opportunities from ideal prospects who already know, like and trust me. 

(This works so well that yesterday I had my first $40,000 day as an entrepreneur).

There are specific strategies, plays, and tips rely on time and time again. They helped me

• Build Gong’s LinkedIn audience from 12,000 → 200,000+ 

• Grow my LinkedIn audience from 5,000 → 84,000+

• Grow Gong’s brand from $20M → $220M ARR 

• Scale my business into a healthy 6-figures, 100% inbound

Now I’ve taken all these lessons put them into a digital playbook called, Content That Converts. 

I wrote it for people who want to create better content to build an audience, brand, and pipeline.

If that’s you… You can get your copy here.

“Loved understanding the science behind writing compelling hooks and writing content in a more fluid and natural way. I’ve been able to add hundreds of followers to my LinkedIn using these tactics over the last few months.”
-Jared Castronova, Head of Marketing Comms at Checkmate

Holler at you later,
Devin

PS: It took me 2.5 hours to write and edit this newsletter. If you found this post insightful, you can help me grow it by forwarding it to one person with a quick “You’ll love this newsletter. Totally worth signing up.”

Episode 9 of Reed Between the Lines
with Mark Huber is live 🏄🏻‍♂️

Worth tuning in just to hear what happened when Mark got pressured into skiing down a black diamond trail with his investors and CEO as a first-time VP Marketing.

Plus advice on

→ Maintaining self-worth in your career
→ Building a legacy with your career and family
→ Finding JOY in your role (despite metric obsessions)

→ Watch and subscribe on Youtube 

→ Listen and subscribe on Apple

→ Listen and follow on Spotify