IAM2166 – Media Consultant Pulls His Clients’ Genius Out and Packages it Up for the World

Jason Croft has worked around the globe creating professional content in a wide range of roles in projects from producing award-winning movies to shooting for exotic animal shows in Texas and Alaska to producing content for the largest boxing event in history.

He has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and industry experts from behind and in front of the camera. He's been the successful host and producer of numerous shows, including Startup Dallas, the Jason Croft Show, Strategy Plus Action, Power Content Coach, and Concentric. As a frequent speaker and guest on podcasts, he teaches people how to create leadership-level content. He emphasizes the importance of structuring interviews strategically to benefit the business from the very beginning

Jason shares the importance of finding a balance between having a clear direction and being open to new opportunities.

Website: Jason Croft Consulting
LinkedIn: Jason Croft

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Transcription:

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Jason Croft Teaser 00:00

It's so much easier to have that first conversation when you have this platform. And essentially you're giving, like I'm giving you a spotlight from the beginning, right? Yeah, like it's a chance to create some media that you can go put in front of your audience. And so you're giving from the very beginning and it's just, it's what we all want as business owners.

Intro 00:21

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jason Croft. Jason, excited to have you on the show.

Jason Croft 00:56

Appreciate it. Glad to be here.

Gresham Harkless 00:59

Yes, definitely. The pleasure is all ours and Jason is doing so many phenomenal things. So of course, before we jumped in and hear about some of those phenomenal things, let me read a little bit more about Jason so you can hear about the awesomeness that is Jason Croft. And in his 30 plus years in media, Jason has worked around the globe creating professional content in a wide ranging roles in projects from producing award winning movies to shooting for exotic animal shows in Texas and Alaska to producing content for the largest boxing event in history.

He has interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and industry experts from behind and in front of the camera. He's been the successful host and producer of numerous shows, including Startup Dallas, the Jason Croft Show, Strategy Plus Action, Power Content Coach, and Concentric. As a frequent speaker and guest on podcasts, he teaches people how to create leadership level content. Jason Skilled is pulling his clients genius out and packaging it up for the world to experience.

Through his company Media Leads, business coaches, consultants hire him to build their own video visibility platforms, elevating their online presence and attracting their ideal clients through powerful video content. And I absolutely love everything that Jason's doing. We had a connection and we just geeked out over all things about being your own media company and just how all these awesome things that are available to us now provides a pretty awesome way for people to get their name out there. So Jason, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Jason Croft 02:27

I am ready.

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Gresham Harkless 02:29

Let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Jason Croft 02:36

Yeah, really this iteration will go there. We won't go back to 8-year-old Jason playing with Star Wars or anything like that. I think those all play into things, but we'll fast forward a little bit. This latest iteration of what I've got going with Media Leads particularly really started in 2015 as I accidentally discovered this whole beautiful podcast, video, show thing, certainly from being on this side of it. I jumped in as a marketing initiative, created that first show, Start Up Dallas sat in the host chair because it was my crazy idea to do this. Fell in love with it and all that good stuff. But what I discovered is the seed of what I'm doing now in media leads, working with coaches and consultants.

And that seed is this thought that kept going through my head as I started that show. The next one I did, as I'm across from a super successful person, a multimillionaire, this, that, and in my head, I'm like, they know this is just a little YouTube show, right? And that discovery was, yeah, they know, and it doesn't matter, because there's still a benefit for them to create this content. And so that lesson, besides, again, loving the format so much, and I've always had a show ever since then.

But that lesson is what I'm helping coaches, consultants with now, and starting their own show, not from the typical standpoint that we hear about all the time, the content marketing, put stuff out forever, and maybe something will happen one day instead, from episode one, it should benefit your business. So structuring those interviews the right way from the standpoint of who you even bring on, who you're having a conversation with, making all those things very strategic and purposeful so that it's actually growing your business in the short term, while long term, you're still going to get those content marketing benefits. So that's really the latest right now and what I got happening.

Gresham Harkless 04:46

Nice. I absolutely love that. So I would love to hear a little bit more on what that process looks like, how you work with and serve your clients and make that impact.

Jason Croft 04:53

Yeah. So once they've embraced this idea of, okay, this makes sense. This is something worth my time to go into, worth my money, worth all of that. Then it's a very strategic aspect. First, it's a couple of really deep calls that we're going to identify. I want to make sure I understand that coach's business, that who their ideal client is, what their unique selling proposition is, what is their problem, how do they help folks. Because we're not just creating a show for them to come on and have those conversations. There's an ongoing coaching that I do for my clients that is making sure that goal that we set out in the beginning for them to be able to attract clients from anybody who listens or watches to that person they're talking to.

And it's an interesting dance to create a show like this, like you're creating, and have something good, have something that's worthwhile for that guest, worthwhile for the audience. But then just making sure that the host's expertise is coming across. And that's a constant evolution and a coaching that I do with my clients as I go through and we edit their shows and we go through, let's jump on a call because we're close on this. Because I know I had to learn this lesson from a guest from one of my early shows to learn this lesson of making sure that my expertise comes across in whatever area that is along with my guests because it's if you're halfway care about who you're talking to, which I hope we all do when we're going into this, it's so much easier to just jump into, oh yeah, that's amazing. Tell me more. Oh, tell me more.

And that's great. You should have that curiosity. You should have all of that desire to elevate your guest. But that's why it's a tough process to make sure that the dynamic you set up is one where it's two experts having a conversation, right? So that as media leads creating these clips for my clients and all that, I want to make sure that when they put that out on LinkedIn, anybody watching that goes, oh wow, that host really knows what they're talking about. Oh wow, that guest was awesome. Both of those pretty equally. So that's that ongoing process that we do in addition to all the core million things you have to do to put in place just to have a podcast. The logo, the artwork, all that kind of stuff that is a big deal because I think it is really important because all those things are, they influence how you show up to that guest, to that audience, to potential clients. So I think all of that's, I find all that really important and fun and make sure we get all that dialed in.

Gresham Harkless 07:45

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I don't know if this is part of what I would call your secret sauce, the thing you feel sets you apart and makes you unique. So I almost wonder is that part of what kind of sets you apart is being able to coerce, understand all the nuances of the podcast, but understand that it doesn't have to be just the guests gets to share. The host also gets to share and it ends up being even better because they're both playing off each other.

Jason Croft 08:05

Yeah, that just becomes a better experience for everyone. That's where you jump in and you get those nuances and you learn even more. And that was a really purposeful decision. So from the very beginning, I set out to make sure that each episode is built around a core topic, more than it is built around, Hey, the guest and tell me your story and all of that. All of that stuff comes out in the course of the interview. And that's why I try to help my clients create. So obviously that core topic is going to relate to the guest and be their expertise.

But now the dynamic here is a conversation where two experts are having a conversation about this core topic rather than, hey, here's a host and an expert in this. And that's, it could be a subtle difference, but It's important to achieve what we've been talking about, but it's also having some kind of framework like that and guidepost. It just makes it easier to not slip back into typical host mode. So hopefully that gives us an idea of what we're talking about in order to achieve that dynamic.

Gresham Harkless 09:25

Yeah, I think that makes so much sense. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple Book or even a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Jason Croft 09:38

I think right now, the biggest thing is AI across the board. ChatGPT specifically. I bounce back between that and Claude, their premium of both, not just create some content, but really, like I've gone deep on some buyer personas and all these things that I'm learning to inform my copywriting and across the board. It's such an amazing tool to have, to just not be staring at a blank page. And I'm sure you're finding too, just like with my shows. Oh my gosh. Here's the thing too that I found early on as I started using AI to have a summary of the show, make a LinkedIn post, used for my show notes.

Again, as a starting place and then keep digging in going back to it okay this is cheesy stop doing this yell at Chad a little bit here's the words you're not allowed to use anymore going back and forth what I was so excited about even early on was that it was different from the same crap, I would say, at every single, I felt I was in a, people talk about all that all the time that like, oh, it doesn't sound like me or does, I was excited it didn't sound like me. Like, wow, that is better. And then I can add my flavor into what it kicks out. But I was bored from my own normal summary of a show and all of that.

So that's just across the board. And then it's an interesting dynamic to learn and embrace right now. I was listening to somebody teaching on it that we really need to get to this place of AI first, as we're like, man, I wanna go do this thing. And for our brains to go ask ChatGPT as a first thing, even before Google, before sitting on a brainstorm, just there's so much at our fingertips, just like we've learned Google first. It's getting to that process. It's, We're reaching that time that that's what we need to reach for first in so many ways. And again, there's value in what we bring to the table and we can make all this stuff better. But It's an amazing tool. That's one of the biggest things for me right now.

Gresham Harkless  12:03

Nice, I absolutely love that. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget? This could be for your favorite client or if you were to hop into a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?

Jason Croft 12:15

Yeah, I think it leans into exactly what we've been talking about from having that direction for a company as a CEO, for sure. That's the balancing act always, right? Having a direction, hey, this is what I want to accomplish while being open to, oh, wow, look what just came in the door. It's AI. What am I going to do with this? And finding that balance of, do I scrap everything and start over or how do I layer this into what I'm doing? Finding that balance so you're not just blinders on, I'm going to do what I do. It doesn't matter what the world's doing, but also not just jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping, just because the headlines say, oh, I should be doing this, I should be doing that.

I think that's the biggest nugget is to find that balance between the two, being self-aware enough to know that, am I just, am I jumping to this next thing because I'm hiding from doing what I need to be doing to keep my vision going and all this or am I really open to the fact that hey this is a big deal and I need to consider it and that's gonna be unique to all of us for sure on how much and when and how we accomplish that, whether that's dedicated, scheduled, hey, I'm going to be in silence a certain amount of time every day so that I'm just listening to my own and considering certain things or whatever that process may be, or getting input from others. Some people just need that even more. I need a mastermind around me. I need to be able to bounce ideas off more. All of those things are valuable, but just that self-awareness to think about these things in a bigger way, I think That's what I would call a nugget right now.

Gresham Harkless 14:03

Yeah, the nugget even amounted at that. So what would you consider to be your answer to one of my absolute favorite questions? The definition of what it means to be a CEO and our goals have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Jason, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jason Croft 14:16

Wow, there's definitely the easy answer. Certainly a leadership aspect. Again, whether you're a one-person CEO or you're leading hundreds of people, there's a time to have that CEO hat on even if you are doing everything. You need to have that dedicated time to decide as a CEO, okay, do I have systems in place in my business? Am I on that right path, that right trajectory? And I think that's important for all of us. I work with coaches and consultants. It's me as a company owner and contractors.

So I'm in this boat and I tend to think in these ways. I think That's why I'm steering it this way for folks who are that one or two person operation. I think it's important to remind ourselves that we are the leader of our organization, even if it's just us. And if we had a CEO looking at what we were doing every day, would they be like, you're fired? Or would they be like, hey, good job. You know, it's so jump back and forth. Maybe that's the next thing with that's when I need to create is a little GPT that's CEO GPGP to ask, hey, Jason, have you done this today?

Gresham Harkless 15:34

Yeah, exactly. No, I absolutely love that. Jason truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people get a hold of you, find out about the podcast, all the awesome things that you're working on.

Jason Croft 15:58

I appreciate that. Yeah, it's easiest way to get just all the stuff is thejasoncroft.com that's got links to Media Leads site to all the shows. I'm doing and all that fun stuff.

Gresham Harkless 16:10

Awesome. Awesome Awesome. I truly appreciate that Jason of course to make it that even easier we'll have the links and information the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jason Croft 16:22

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. This has been an absolute blast.

Outro 16:25

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNation.co. Also, check out our I AM CEO Facebook group. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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