Kasey is a startup growth strategist, community builder, event organizer, and people connecter. She is the founder of A Better Jones, a startup growth strategy firm and Our Galaxy, a community to help business professionals become industry thought leaders. She is also the host of two podcasts: The Other Side of Sales and her latest project, Thought Leader Camp.

• CEO Hack: Read more
• CEO Nugget: Think about how you want to make people feel and the impact you want to have
• CEO Defined: Deciding what you want your life to be, the legacy and impact you want to leave

Website: https://www.abetterjones.com/

Thought leadership community and resource – ourgalaxy.co 
Twitter: twitter.com/abetterjones
Instagram: instagram.com/abetterjones
LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/abetterjones

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:29.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on my show today. I have Casey Jones of A Better Jones in Our Galaxy. Casey, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:38.89] – Kasey Jones

It's fabulous to be here. Thanks, Gresh.

[00:00:42.50] – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Casey so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Casey is a startup growth strategist, community builder, event organizer, and people connector. She is a and she is the founder of AbetterJones, a startup growth strategy firm, and Our Galaxy, a community to help business professionals become an industry thought leaders. She is also the host of two podcasts, The Other Sides of Other Side of Sales, and her latest project, Thought Leader Camp. Casey, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:00:48.89] – Kasey Jones

I am. Awesome.

[00:00:52.50] – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to kinda rewind the clock a little bit. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get started with the business.

[00:01:20.29] – Kasey Jones

Absolutely. So, I was head of marketing for a couple of different startups, after starting my career in sales and then transitioning to marketing. And then I was working at a startup and I found out that they ran out of money. I found out they ran out of money right after I'd gotten back from ten days in Beirut, Lebanon coaching social impact startups that were part of the first partnership between a startup accelerator and the UN. And so I was like on a high because it was such a rewarding experience and I was like oh my god this is what I want to do and then I found out that I was out of a job like the next day. And so I decided to make the leap then to start my own firm because I was really seeing these early-stage startups and the early-stage startup founders really struggling, with kind of scrappy but still sustainable growth strategy.

[00:02:18.90] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And and, sadly to say too, I started a lot of what I do now because I was laid off. I actually took a job that I thought was gonna be a great job, and I ended up getting laid off. And I took another job, and I actually was about to get laid off from it. So I know that pain unfortunately far too well, but I think a lot of times those situations and things can kinda direct us into where we're hoping to be.

[00:02:42.19] – Kasey Jones

Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. And, actually, I've been talking to a couple of mentors about the huge, boom in entrepreneurship and startups during the two thousand eight economic crisis and we're already seeing, tons of people starting side hustles and, you know, small businesses because they've been laid off during this COVID pandemic. And so, you know, that's not to say that things aren't hard right now, but I think we are gonna see a lot of creativity and a lot of innovation and a lot of new CEOs, kind of on the rise over the next year. I'm excited to see us recover and and come out of this better than we went in hopefully. Fingers crossed.

[00:03:24.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think it's it's so funny you said that just because I think when I started to read a lot about I didn't know exactly what entrepreneurship was, but I started to read a lot about it. And that was one of the most surprising things that came up for me is that you read that a lot of the Fortune five hundred companies were actually started during economic downturns. And it's just kinda mind-blowing to think of, like, as you spoke about the creativity, the opportunity that presents itself when there's kind of these downturns or these crashes where it seems like it's all doom and gloom and definitely as difficult as you spoke to, but it's definitely some opportunity that's within that.

[00:03:55.90] – Kasey Jones

Absolutely. And I think I think we're it's a little too early to tell, but I just have this feeling like in another year or two, we're gonna see, some big shifts in what entrepreneur entrepreneurship looks like in America, and I'm I'm excited to see it, and I'm excited to kind of be a part of that and hopefully help cultivate and foster some of these, new leaders in these new these new companies.

[00:04:22.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. It'll definitely be, I think, too. So I'm a little biased, of course, too, but I'm, excited as well to kinda see what comes, you know, from all of this. So, I know we spoke a little bit when I read your bio and you did as well too. Could you take us through how you work with your clients in different ways that you connect with them?

[00:04:38.80] – Kasey Jones

Yeah. And so we started as a startup growth strategy firm, and over the years what I've really recognized where there's a huge opportunity that I see a ton of startup founders and especially underrepresented founders, especially women, especially people of color, We have a tendency to be the sort of people that put our head down, we work hard and we just like hope someone will notice. And so a lot of the work we started to do as part of this more kind of company-wide growth strategy was helping the leaders of the company build authentic personal brands that helped them grow their business. And that's really where we focus now, and we specialize in what we refer to as aggressively humble business professionals. So the ones that you know resist the urge to brag or to talk about themselves, but they're doing impressive things. And so I work with them on helping them kind of find their voice, and put themselves out there and do it in a way that has an impact on their community but really helps them accelerate the growth of their business.

[00:05:50.89] – Gresham Harkless

That's absolutely powerful. And I don't know if you find this when you work with your clients that those ones that are aggressively humble, as you said, sometimes are great at what they do. And they're so kinda hesitant maybe for, you know, maybe a myriad of reasons to kind of stand on the mountain and say, hey. Look what I've done. And I think that it helps to have somebody who recognizes that and sees that, but also knows how exactly to make that happen so that, you know, those goals can be accomplished.

[00:06:16.60] – Kasey Jones

Absolutely. And I think, you know, here's the deal. The one thing I talk about a ton is this mindset shift. So the number one sort of objection I get from those aggressively humble leaders where they're like, oh I don't want to brag, And I say, okay, go look at like the social media profiles of people you admire and that you follow. Do any of them get up there and just be like, I'm so great, I'm so awesome. Look at what I did. No. They don't. Like, none of them do that. And the idea actually is not bragging, it's sharing. So thinking through, like, what are the things you learned? What are, the things you tested and the things you tried and what are you thinking about, right? So it's about sharing and sharing your journey and your experience and the lessons you've learned along the way. It's not about going on and on about how awesome you are. No one wants to follow that. No one wants to pay attention to that. And when you think about it that way, all of a sudden it becomes so much easier, because it feels a whole lot less icky.

[00:07:17.50] – Gresham Harkless

Right. And and probably definitely in alignment as well too as I imagine that a lot of people are kinda looking on how best to do that and especially, I love the aspect of really being able to kinda just show what you're doing. Because I think so many times when we build and grow things or create things, I should even say, we're doing it to be of service, and it's kind of a disservice when we don't share that to the world, to the community that we, wanna connect with and wanna support and grow.

[00:07:43.60] – Kasey Jones

Yeah. And, you know, part of the sort of inspiration for all of this is I'm based in Portland, Oregon. Mhmm. And most of the leaders of the startup community in Portland, we all kind of joke with each other that, like, we are a city of aggressively humble people, and it's actually really hampered our growth as a startup community. Because unless you live in the city or unless you happen to use one of the products that are built here, you don't know how incredibly vibrant the startup, community really is in Portland because we don't talk about it. And so I've just, it's like over the last couple of years I've had this like ongoing conversation with startup leaders about this blocker that we're all kind of facing as a community and how can we cultivate this kind of storytelling in a way that serves all of us and it helps us have a bigger impact. If no one knows what you're doing, you know it's the whole, if the tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, it doesn't make a sound. Right? If you do amazing things and no one has any clue that you're doing it, doesn't matter.

[00:08:48.10] – Gresham Harkless

Right. Yeah. And that and that really gets down to, you know, as you said, really knowing why you're doing what you're doing. Because, again, we create these things. We develop these things in order to make that impact. But if we don't make that mindset shift that you talked about to really take it to, I guess, a neck the next level, which is often the case, then are we making the impact we initially desired to do? So we have to get past that, and I appreciate you for helping, you know, so many entrepreneurs and startups to get past that as well. So, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be you personally your your business or your organization, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:09:24.20] – Kasey Jones

So there's a few things. One of the things that I think really does set me apart when it comes to growth strategy, a lot of the folks on the growth strategy side of things, are marketers. I started my career in sales and that means I apply a lot of the kind of scrappy sales methodology to the work that I do. Right? So one of the things that, you know, we've always done differently, we even do this when it comes to this kind of thought leadership, kind of growth and expansion work that we do, is, you know, okay, when you think about marketing, right, it's like you put something out there and someone's gonna find it or you're gonna deliver an ad to them and they'll find it, and you just like waiting for them to come in.

Sales don't work that way, right? In sales, we go out and we're hunters, we go find the people that we want to connect with our product, that we want to sell to and we find them and we engage them. And when it comes to startups, way too often startups are trying to run marketing or run growth or run how they build themselves as thought leaders the way you would if you were like an enterprise brand, and guess what? It does not work. It's not the, like, we put out awesome things and, like, fingers crossed someone finds it. The world is a very, very noisy place. So a lot of what we do is really helping our clients understand exactly who they want to know who they are, right?

Like who do they want to connect to, who do they serve, all of that And then finding them where they are, finding them, getting in front of them, engaging them in a really personal way. And so we kind of call it relationship building at scale. And so how can you do something that feels feels one to one, but is really one to many. And that's kind of the fuel we use to accelerate this growth, both from a thought leadership standpoint. Right? It's not just like putting stuff out on social media, but it's going and sending someone a direct message and being like, hey, I like what you're doing. I'm doing this thing. I think you might be interested you think and like actually engaging and creating meaningful relationships and building communities around it.

[00:11:26.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. No. I love that. So I wanted to, switch gears a little bit Yeah. And I wanted to ask you about what I call, a CEO hack. So this could be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:11:38.70] – Kasey Jones

Yeah. So number one, and this is not the this is not the most original, but it is like it is everything to me is read more, read more. And if you struggle to read physical books, then listen to audiobooks. Listen to them at one-and-a-quarter speed or one-and-a-half speed, but read more.

[00:11:58.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Alright. That makes so much sense. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be around sales or it might be something you would tell a client or if you happened to be a time machine maybe even your younger business self.

[00:12:12.20] – Kasey Jones

Yeah. So I've been saying this a lot lately, everyone has a personal brand. I talk to a lot of founders who are like, oh, my personal brand doesn't matter, it's my business brand. Here's the deal, I hate Jeff Bezos and what he stands for, but he's got a great quote. Your personal brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. And you have a personal brand, it just, the question is, have you applied any intention? And you have the ability to think through what you want people to say about you? I think a lot also about the Maya Angelou quote, also gonna butcher this, you don't you don't remember what they, people don't remember what you said or what you did, they remember how you made them feel. So how do you want to make people feel? And if you apply intention to that, it's going to help you create a personal brand and create a kind of impact in your community in your industry, and in your world that you can be proud of and that can help you and your business. And so take the time to actually do the work and think about what, you know, the kind of impact you wanna have because you're gonna have some impact. You better decide what you want it to be.

[00:13:23.20] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And I know we touched on this about the changing of entrepreneurship and the idea of what that means. But could you take us through what you and how you would define what being a CEO means to you, Casey?

[00:13:37.79] – Kasey Jones

I think it really means charting your own path. And it's a and that's a complex sort of concept, but it means deciding what you want your life to be about and again deciding what kind of impact you want to have. Who do you wanna be? What kind of legacy do you wanna create in your life? How do you wanna affect people?

[00:13:57.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. No. I love that and I definitely, you know, respect that definition because so many times, we can kinda shy from the roles that we have or the impact that we have in our in our life and in our worlds and our societies. And I think as you said is when you own that. It's not so much the title is what it represents and what it can mean as far as the impact that we have on our businesses, the people that are working with us, around us, partners, and so on and so forth. And I think when we step into that, as you said, it really level I think it really increases, sometimes the effort and the products and the services that we put out, the impact that we have because we understand the true impact of everything that we're doing and we're a lot more, intentional about how we do that. Yeah.

[00:14:37.10] – Kasey Jones

It all comes down to intention.

[00:14:39.10] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, Casey, truly appreciate that and appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you, subscribe to your podcast, and find out about all about some things you're working on.

[00:14:53.29] – Kasey Jones

Yeah. So number one thing is if you are, an entrepreneur or dreaming of being an entrepreneur, I know, today is also the time of the side hustle, come find me at Our Galaxy, so our Galaxy dot co, and we're building a private Slack community that is all about helping people build, you know, grow as thought leaders, find their voice and kind of get out there. And so everything from helping you pitch yourself to the podcast to get interviews with amazing people like Grash, but also starting your podcast, getting more active on social media, leveraging Linkedin, all of the things that kind of go with it. So I'm just super passionate about helping as many people as I possibly can kind of go down this path. So go to our Galaxy dot co and take advantage of a ton of the resources that we have, join the communities, join the conversation, so we can all kind of learn and grow together. Because, turns out growing is, like, easier and a whole lot more fun when you're doing it with other people that are kind of on the same journey, the same sort of, hustle with you.

[00:15:59.10] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Yes. And it's so funny. I have this, equation where I say visibility plus resources equals success and to have accessibility to those resources is absolutely huge. So appreciate you for bringing that together with the community piece along with those resources that are extremely valuable, for everybody to go to, and take advantage of. So truly appreciate that, Casey, and and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:21.00] – Kasey Jones

Thank you. You too.

[00:16:23.00] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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