Erin King

Episode 303: Erin King
“A Big Deal”

Conversation with Erin King, a 3x entrepreneur, international keynote speaker who helps people communicate more compellingly in the digital age, and the author of both “Digital Persuasion” and “You’re Kind of a Big Deal.”

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Transcription of the Episode


Transcription
****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

[intro music]
Shark 0:16
Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Keneth "Shark" Kinney, your host and Chief Shark Officer.

Shark 0:22
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Shark 0:26
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Shark 0:50
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Shark 1:13
And now back to the show.

Shark 1:15
Are your social posts always about you? Or are they for your audience? After all, how do you show up, audacious and bold or just braggadocious Bob or in the gym gym? It's not always easy for personal brands or corporate ones to power up potential and be one of the voices gaining traction by showing up and sharing what's helpful. When someone sees your posts. Can they actually say that they're better for having scrolled by that piece of content? Now's the time to unlock it all because, after all, you're kind of a big deal.

Shark 1:44
Erin King is a three time entrepreneur, international keynote speaker helping people communicate more compellingly in the digital age, and the author of both "Digital Persuasion" as well as their newest book, "You're Kind of a Big Deal."

Shark 1:56
And on this episode we'll discuss living by the beach, becoming a keynote speaker by chance cavapoos and Betty White, shifting from social media to social selling to communication, having an audacious level of bravery and courage, better phrases for social posts to frame your story, how to show yourself visually, but type them verbally personal branding, content creation, digital high fives, landing the plane, the pub method, skinny and anorexic margaritas, Jessie Spano, and a lot, lot more. So let's tune into a queen of a big deal with a king of a shark on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

Shark 2:35
Erin, thank you so much for joining us today on A Shark's Perspective. Would you please tell us a little bit about your background and your career to date?

Erin King 2:42
Thanks for having me Kenneth.

Shark 2:43
Absolutely.

Erin King 2:44
Yeah, I like that background, beautiful beach environment. Very, very Zen and very on brand.

Shark 2:49
Very on brand. I'm mentally here 99% of the day.

Erin King 2:53
I love it. Well, we're here in Laguna Beach, California and my husband, my furbaby Betty White and I we all live one block from the beach, which is the good part. The bad part is to be able to afford to live one block from the beach in a crappy place that has not been updated since the 1960s. We have no AC, no heat, no parking, no dishwasher, no microwave, but we can hear the waves at night. And we can serve out front and so that's where we live. But so yeah, so my career I've been a serial entrepreneur since forever and ever I've started three ventures. The first one was a train wreck. The second one broke even and the third one was pretty successful. We ended up Yeah, working with some pretty big clients, everyone from the Oscars in Hollywood to the United States, maybe helping them with their social media presence for live events was our jam. And then one day I was doing a live event for the I think it was the Auto Care Association. So it was 190,000 gearheads in Las Vegas, and it was a breakout room with 200 people in it and the meeting planner come up to me and she's bawling, crying, hysterical miscarried down the face. And she's like my social media breakout speaker is sick and just canceled. Can you go into this breakout room and just tell them what you and your team are doing for us here at the show running social media for the event. And that was my first speaking engagement. It was terrifying. And afterward a couple people said, Hey, what's your fee? And I'm like, you can get paid do this. Are you kidding me? Like, why am I running this agency and getting gray hair prematurely when I could be having fun on stage, teaching what I know and sharing my stories. So that launched my speaking career. I've been writing books and full time keynote speaking and online courses ever since just sharing what I have learned in 15 years up and down entrepreneurship, everything from being featured in Forbes to being so broke, I couldn't pay a cell phone bill. So I've been up and down and all over and I share those stories with my audiences.

Shark 4:48
So one point of clarification, and then a follow up question to that event. You said furbaby. I've seen your pictures on Instagram, your furbaby is not your husband, it's your dog. What kind of Dog, is it?

Erin King 5:00
She is a cavapoo, a Cavalier and a poodle mix? Well, yes. And she's seven months old. She's a little sass pants, and I'm obsessed with her.

Shark 5:10
Second question is did you get paid for that first speech? No, after they did it, and they loved you? Did they give you a check?

Erin King 5:17
Well, I was already so I was on site running a team of social media, journalists, so they paid us to be there. And I just swapped out an hour of live tweeting speakers, which is what I essentially did for an hour of just talking about, hey, here's how we organize before, during and after an event with our social media. So I kind of got paid. But then yeah, downpayment. Yeah. And I had three different clients, or people in the audience that were like, Hey, we want you to come speak at our, in our, you know, brand new car salesman, what's your fee, and I'm like, I cannot believe you can get paid to share what you know. And all of a sudden, it just, it's, it's funny, because my speaking business my is my fourth venture. And it's the one that I actually didn't set out to create. It's the one that's created itself. Now, obviously, I work on it. I work very hard on it, but but it's the first one that I wasn't like, okay, I want to go out and do this. Like, it just kind of found me. And it's been, you know, I mean, it's the biggest honor, it's the it's the most pinch yourself job on the planet, I believe, oh,

Shark 6:20
It's a roller coaster. But whoever was this, the speaker that disappeared, you should anonymously send them a little Christmas gift every year. And thank them for creating that opening. Because that's it's fantastic story. So let's talk a little bit about why and how you transition from a social digital media company owner, to being a speaker, what made you make that move?

Erin King 6:42
Well, you know, when I first started working in social media, it was 2004. So I've been in it since the very beginning. I mean, my very first time with it was at a software company, and we were like a match.com. For trade shows, we would pair attendees with exhibitors, it was called Smart booth. And this is obviously, right. When LinkedIn came out, it was essentially the same concept. LinkedIn is still here, smart booth is not. But I've been working in that space since the very beginning. And what I back when we were doing social media for live events, it was really, we had to convince big brands like visa, Siemens, Hitachi, I can go on and on, you name a fortune 100, we'd run social media for them. And back then I was at conferences, or a conference room tables, trying to explain to CEOs why Twitter and Instagram were actually important. So I was just evangelizing it in the early days. Well, it was great for us, because no one really had full time social media people at these events. And so then they would then bring us in to train their sales teams in their marketing teams. So it was really great. But over the last 567 years, those huge brands, they've, they get it now they get social media. So now they had their own full time, people full time teams. And so I think the value we provided was to kind of get them initiated into it, get them off the ground, we'd help them launch a lot of pilot programs. But now in 2021, I mean, social media is a whole department of these companies. And so we found our demand for what we were doing was actually going down, but the demand for learning my strategies, but teaching it to their in house people went up. So that's how my speaking career sort of transitioned from outsourcing it to teaching it.

Shark 8:25
Well, let's start off at least and talk about your newest book. Yeah, you're kind of a big deal. It's the true life story of getting to know Shark No, just kidding. It's your kind of a big deal level up by unlocking your Audacity. So who is the audience? And you know, how are you going about trying to serve them?

Erin King 8:41
Yeah, well, the audience is really anyone who has felt a little lost during this pandemic. I don't know about you kind of but I had a moment during the pandemic, where someone was like, so what do you do for work? And I called Right, yeah. And I'm like, dude, can you say you're a speaker? If you're just on zoom like everybody else? Yeah, like, what do we do? What are we, it's, I think a lot of us add a little bit of an identity crisis, whether you're an event planner, or you're an athlete, or a musician, or an artist, or anyone who made a living boots on stage, now your stage became zoom, which everyone else in the world was also on that stage. So it was just a really tricky 1820 months for a lot of us. And so the book was born out of reminding ourselves who the hell we are, what we know, and what we do have to bring the world and it begins with believing we have a story to tell, we have something to say we have value to contribute. And so the book is all about reminding you how to unlock what I call your big deal energy.

Shark 9:45
With this book, how did you pivot from your first book, digital persuasion sell smarter in the modern marketplace?

Erin King 9:51
Well, it's a diversity play, because I'm looking at diversifying my topics because when I saw the social network of you In that movie on Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I watched that, after I avoided it intentionally for a long time because everyone was talking about it. And I was like fingers in the ears. Like, I don't even want to know. I know. But I don't want to know No. And but I watched the documentary, I just sat on the floor in my living room. And I'm like, I have been a part of this problem. Since the beginning. I have been evangelizing this since the beginning. Now, just like anything else, I mean, there's there's good and bad, it's not inherently good or evil. I'm telling them how you use it, right? But it just got me thinking like, is this still what I am the most passionate about? And so that was what triggered for me a migration into talking more about mindset, entrepreneurship, confidence, audacity, sort of more in the I hate the term self help, but I think it's more like personal development space, right. So as we're transitioning into that, I still talk about digital persuasion, because I believe that there's still a ton of value in especially right now with the Delta variant and people still working, flexing from home, there's still a lot we need to learn about how to show up powerfully from behind the screen. So we don't bore people to tears. And so we're powerful and persuasive. But I've shifted my conversation to be not as much social media heavy and more social selling. So how do we show up in our DMS in our emails, and even conversations like that on zoom. So it's sort of moved from social media to communication, which I'm always very passionate about. And then the new book is about audacity, which I think, is something we really, really need. Now more than ever, as we reinvent into new, scary, untested spaces, we have to have that audacious level of bravery and courage and test and learn at a level that we've never really had to before.

Shark 11:45
First time I could see you speak was at Influence in person. The speech was fantastic. And I think what drew me to want to have this conversation with you, as I was super intrigued by somebody who had worked with large brands, like the ones you mentioned, Siemens, Old Navy, fortune 100, all these big companies, and you transition into really in a business where you're promoting yourself and your own personal brand. I'm often fascinated having worked with a lot of these large brands, similar brands like that myself, and having worked with them on social media, it's always now interesting for me to see people move from the role of influencer or just a person posting on social moving and trying to take a lot of what they've learned as an individual and applying that to the brand level. And I'm curious where you see the parallels, and where you see the complete screw ups. Because there's a you know, with Instagram in particular, which you do extra well on. It's a big focus on you and your, your vacation spots, gym, at the gym, all those funny taglines you've got about different people and profiles, when they go and try to apply that knowledge for a lot of large brands. It completely fails because it becomes a lot of that brand speak and all about brand in them.

Erin King 13:00
Yes, it's definitely, in my opinion, easier to be a coach than a player sometimes. Yeah, grand win. And as thought leaders, as speakers as authors, whatever we call ourselves, we often preach the lessons that we have to learn the most and, and having led digital strategy for I mean, I dialed into the Pentagon and I was talking to the United States Navy, about the digital communication strategy. You know, I've worked with the Oscars in Hollywood Fashion Week, Nelson Mandela's family was one of my clients, we worked on his 90th birthday celebration in New York for his legacy of Hope Foundation. I've worked with some really random like the national radiological Society of North America. So my span of brand experience is you name it, I've worked with at least one brand in that space. And transitioning into applying taking my own medicine. and applying it to my own brand has been humbling, for sure. And it's so funny because I look at you know, when anyone comes to me, and they're like, okay, I want to do a new brand positioning, I want to know who I stand for, and I can run anyone else do the exercises, it's so clear to me. But when it comes to ourselves, because we're so intimately tied to our work, and we're so emotionally invested, it's impossible to have a third party objective lens on how we show up to the world when it comes to our own content. For example, you saw my target influence. I'm a big fan of making sure you're flipping the focus of your content and asking yourself, is this serving me or serving my audience? That's a very basic question. But oftentimes, I'll find even just now, we were on vacation for three weeks, and I'm like, Okay, I'm not gonna just gonna brag about my vacation and Me, me me and look what I did. But instead, I'm gonna make it about my audience. You know, have you ever found yourself facing burnout? How did you deal with it? How do you recharge and so it's more of a conversation around. Here's what's worked for me. Maybe it might work for you, rather than just Hey, I went wine tasting and you didn't brag. brag. brag, right? So, so it's I'm always trying to walk my walk and walk my talk and take my medicine, it is certainly not easy to do. And that's why I think the biggest way that if people listening to this are struggling with taking your own medicine when it comes to your marketing and sales and personal branding, making sure that you have a very carefully curated personal Board of Directors has been my secret to success. I have five people, actually all NSA people, but three of them are my she noters. So Nene James, Tamsin Webster, Tammy Evans, Mike Nino, and Brian fans. Oh, those are my five truth tellers, and I will send them key I was just emailing Mike Guinea. Now before we get on this podcast about my new keynote. I will send them content, I will send them videos I will send them emails. And I'll be like, guys on the douche meter. How are we ranking? Okay, are we coming in? Are we being authentic or being another braggadocious douchey speaker because it's so easy for us to fall into this narrative of well, if we don't brag about ourselves, who will. And the reality is that may have worked for a long time. But we are experiencing a lot of perfection fatigue right now. Everyone on the internet with a phone is now broadcasting every moment of their life, everyone has a quote to share a piece of advice is spent. And this idea of I'm the best I'm number one I'm cutting edge, it's kind of 90s it's kind of old school is not as powerful. And when you look at the the voices right now that are gaining traction, that are attractive to us to follow. They're not the voices beating their chest and dropping all of their press hits. And they're number one this in their buzzword that it's the people are just showing up. And they are sharing concrete, personally useful, brief information that you are better for having scrolled by that piece of content. Those are the voices that are winning. And so we are constantly here, I've small team, everything we're doing our videos, our emails, our content, we are constantly saying, is this serving us and making us look cool? Or so we think which is actually the opposite? Or are we showing up with a heart of service? Are we really offering a piece of value that someone when they scroll by, they'll walk away from that engagement? Having something that elevates them and doesn't deflate them? Which is what so much of social content can ultimately really do?

Shark 17:19
So what are some of the key phrases that we should use in our posts?

Erin King 17:23
Well, I mean, any phrase in the first sentence that doesn't have the word I is a good start, it's really hard to do, it's, you know, we are behind screens, we can't see someone rolling their eyes, or leaning back or skipping to the next video. And so we kind of throw up and show up when they're behind the screen. You know, it's kind of like Dear diary mode, we just talked about ourselves because we're literally talking to ourselves on these screens. So the most important thing that we do is we make sure that the very first sentence is always you based, it forces your brain to flip into a space of service and not braggadocious you know, being you know, douchey on the internet. So some of the phrases that we use to start we'll start with you have you ever you know, imagine that you so there you are just anything that isn't saying I'm here and I'm amazing. I just helps you frame your your story in a way that isn't all about you. So the phrase we use, you know, with my team is that we show about us, but we type about them, we show us visually but we typed them verbally and that's sort of the cornerstone of everything that we put out from podcasts to all of our content, we put out a good amount of content and and it's always Yeah, okay, it's fine if it's us visually, but everything we're talking about is not brightsource Bob or just went to the gym gym as much as possible. But it's easier said than done. You know, I mean, dopamine is very real. And when it rains likes and it rains fire emojis and it rains, fire and dancing red dress lady and everyone thinks you're the best. It does feel kind of good and especially in pandemic times when we are still maybe a little isolated or maybe feeling lonely or lost when the internet says Bravo. It kind of makes you put back your shoulders and it makes you crave more of that digital approval and but the reality is that we can get that approval while also making sure that we're making the internet a better place and not feeding in to the influencer negativity that can sprout from just always shouting about how great we are.

Shark 19:23
Yeah, one of the one of my favorite parts of your talk is talking about the digital High Five discussions with those posts, the dopamine that creates for other people, just engaging on somebody else's social is still something that is completely amiss today on LinkedIn, but not nearly enough on all the channels as well.

Erin King 19:43
Yeah, definitely. It's funny I actually have on my on my calendar this morning. It's my first day back from vacation and vacation for three weeks doing nothing but shutting down. I was off digital for nine days. No, no social anyway, but so I have this to do. on my list today, which is digital high fives and everyday just like going to the gym, I spend 30 minutes. And I go through prospects, clients, friends, family, and you aren't just doing it, you know, to be shallow and just, you know, make everyone like you, you're literally going looking at everyone's content, see what everyone's about you're connecting, you're being thoughtful with your comments, you're offering genuine ideas, insights, questions, and hopefully some love. So that when you walk away from that time, it's time well spent, because not all time scrolling is equal, you can either be, you know, consuming inputs that are not serving you. Or you can be consuming inputs from people that can help further your business and then putting out that positive output back to them to create an actually quality feedback loop for both of you. So all scrolls are not created equal. And being really intentional about how you spend that scroll time is a fight that I wage every day.

Shark 20:54
So talking about the value of storytelling, especially with social and how to land the plane successfully. That's the thing that southerners as you've said, have a problem doing with our long, long stories

Erin King 21:06
where the play well, I have a problem doing it. I'm Irish Catholic from the east coast. And we are epic storytellers. As in all the details, all the stuff and my stories are way too long. My husband's always like, you need to land the plane, bring it home, you lose them, they're glazing over. Let's drop the point and move on. So as far as landing the plane on on, on digital and social, one of the biggest ways to land the plane actually isn't even at the end of your story. It's just don't dance around in the beginning, just dive right in. Even this morning, I was on a member of a community called growth day. And it's a bunch of these amazing thought leaders, you know, Brendon Burchard, and Mel Robbins and Dave Hollis. And he was on there like Dean graziosi and Jenna Kutcher and all these incredible thought leaders in our space. And someone was on there today. And they're they're a great storyteller. But it was funny because they spent the first 15 minutes trying to get comfortable on the zooms. They're kind of like throat clearing, you know, dancing around, and they finally got to the story. But I had to really hang in there to even get to the nugget. And I wish this person who usually does a great job would did a great job. But it just wasn't like their A game. You know, we all have this off days, it was a good reminder for me that we don't have to dance around in the beginning and like prep and tease and remind and kick the can around, we can just open up and dive right into the story right into the beginning right into the goods, our audiences ready and primed. And that's the difference between online and offline when you're offline. That kind of approach of like jumping in right away with your story or diving in with the attention getter can be a little bit jarring or harsh offline, like people like to have a little bit poor little play with you kind of come back and forth of the audience that feels more comfortable offline. But online, because we have 17 other screens opened up while you're telling your story or while you're trying to make your point. Diving right in is the best way you have to assure that you get their attention right from the beginning. And don't risk losing them. And and you can always tell the biggest indicator to know if you are rocking something on virtual for example, like this person this morning is the speed of the chat. Like you could see, when they first started off, the chat was blowing up and then it kind of slows down. That's always a metric for me that I know I need to land the plane move on, tell a new story get to the point is when the chat slows when the chat slows. It's because someone is going and doing something else because we love to be a part of it. We're interactive. If you're into a speaker online, you are dropping comments, you are dropping questions you are you're playing with them in the chat. And so that's a great indicator to know whether or not you're you're landing the plane with your stories is is the chat still blowing up? Or is it frozen? Because probably because they're glued to their screen. And they just are so spelled on they can't move to type I guarantee it's not what it is.

Shark 23:50
Do you think you have done as much with engagement on people's stories and their social posts as you've grown a bigger following as you did when you didn't have a big following

Erin King 24:00
100% it's not as scalable. I can't say for example, like in my dm I used to answer every single dm Well, now we have an automated like it gives them a bunch of links automatically. If they're not in my primary inbox, because it's just from a scale perspective. I can't respond to everything. But from an outreach standpoint, from a proactive standpoint, not just the reactive side, but proactively. I have my top 25 every month, and it's 25 individuals that are either someone that I want to get to know better, someone that I want to hire me, someone that knows the person I want to get to know whoever they are, I have 25 people every month and I touch them online intentionally and genuinely and authentically by following their content engaging, sending articles and ideally using that digital to ignite a real dialogue because the goal is to get out from behind the screen and have a dang conversation with someone like we are released as best as we can on video right. So the idea is to move out of DMS and what I have leaned on heavily To move the conversation to a real connection, and not just that surface level banter, which is better than nothing, but still not like ideal to build a great relationship, I lean super heavily on audio, DMS, I love social audio, I feel like it's the fastest way to bring someone into your energy, make sure nothing's lost in translation, and sort of make it feel it took a little extra second to say, Hey, I'm chatting with you, I'm talking to you, I really want to connect. I feel like those dams are how I've, I've kept with a lot of people who I feel are out of my league. So people that have 10 times the following I do or the bigger footprint. You know, we all have like the 15 or 20 people that were like, gosh, we'd love to get 10 minutes with them. Those social audio dm personally useful, brief all about them in the beginning, something useful, and then the brief ask, would love to check it for 10 minutes this day at 10, or one has helped me to get on podcasts that it probably shouldn't have gotten on gotten, you know, conversation with people that probably wouldn't give me the time of day. So that's sort of been the really interesting, effective tactic that I've been leaning on pretty heavily.

Shark 26:03
So what is the pub method?

Erin King 26:07
The pub method where you learned about influence, personally

Shark 26:10
trying to act surprise, would you tell us that story all over again?

Erin King 26:13
Yeah, it's put in the pub and publish. It's it's a method that my team I developed a couple years ago, we had a couple clients that were on retainer, but then we also had a pay for play performance compensation model. So we wanted to get a kicker on our efforts. And so we said, Hey, if we can generate x numbers of activities, of replies of meetings, can you pay us a commission on top of our retainer? And so the pay for performance model is obviously great if you're performing well, or it's a huge waste of time if you're not. And so we started analyzing, we're really motivated to figure out what worked. So we analyzed 1000s of sales conversations that we were working with all of our clients. And we found that there were three elements to the most highly performing messages across all platforms and all industries. And they were messages that open with something very personal. Not Hi, how are you? But it looks like you're called shark because you're a diving and shark enthusiast. You'd be like, Huh, they googled me, okay, go on, right. So open with personal, offering something useful? You know, do you know that stream yard is an excellent platform for live podcasting? Because XYZ I have a code of industry, I love it, you know, whatever, offering something useful to them, keeping it brief, landing the plane, and saying, love to talk more about all things scuba diving stream yard, social audio, are you available Tuesday at 10? Let's jam, making sure the message is personal, useful and brief, when you're trying to get the attention of someone that you don't really know. So this is getting out beyond your existing sphere of influence. And we found that this was the formula. This was the pattern for driving, yeses, opens, replies likes comments, action from behind the screen. And so the pub method was born, we began using it for everything lives, DMZ, emails, trainings, and we taught all these different sales teams fortune one hundreds across the world, what they found was they were spending half the time, sorry, they were spending twice the time reaching out. But they were also getting five to seven times the response rates from new prospects and people that didn't know them. So it took longer, but it was a quality over quantity approach. And this is kind of revolutionary because, you know, it's the spray and pray it's a numbers game. And we were kind of teaching like, if you're still playing the numbers game, your Your days are numbered as what we said so. So that was really helpful for a lot of our clients, I began teaching on stage to a lot of network marketing companies, and other brands, and that form the pub method in my book, digital persuasion, which I teach multiple times a week to pretty much anyone that's in sales, marketing, or just want to be a better communicator, and and influence the way people respond to you to be a more positive response and not just ignoring you rolling your eyes or not being impressed.

Shark 29:07
So you as a speaker, what do you think people get out of learning from you and your value? as a speaker? I've, I've seen you speak, I thought you were fantastic. What's the general message that you think you're going to be talking about today? Or a year or two from now? Is it going to be more so heavy in the social and digital markets?

Erin King 29:26
Yeah, well, the big problem that I solve is, I help people to stop saying to themselves, I just don't know what to write. I don't know what to post. I don't know what to say, I help solve that problem for everyone that I work with. And when they know they have a formula, a prompt they can use. All of a sudden they do know what to say they do know what to share. And most importantly, they can feel more confident in how they're showing up. They can feel confident knowing this is a tried, proven, tested method that will dramatically increase how they're showing up on screens. That's closer to the who they are in the real world offline, which is a persuasive, powerful, influential person. So that's what I love the most. It's like, Oh my gosh, it seems so simple. But people say it's like a Dale Carnegie for digital. It's like How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's not, this is not new content. It's just a little easy way to kind of run your content through to ensure that you're closing the gap between online and offline you and elevating your persuasion power. So I talk a lot about that. I also talked about my new book, which is, like I said earlier about unlocking your audacity, which is, I'll be honest, it's a pink cover. The second word in the book is tampon. My target audience is definitely a lot of women and a few good men. So depending on where you fall in that range, if you're just feeling like you need a good pump up book to feel like remembering who the hell you are, and that you do have this and you can do this. That's the book. It's it's like a big old fist bump to the heart, and mind and soul. And that's my goal with that book. So I'd like keynote for that which is going to be actually debuted for the second time only next week in Texas, so I'm really fast. Yeah, to do that.

Shark 31:08
So Erin, I ask this of everyone who's been on the show, but you're actually lucky enough to be in Laguna Beach, at the beach and near my friends the sharks. What is your favorite kind of shark and why? Surely you have a you surely have a shark story being a surfer?

Erin King 31:24
Well, my favorite kind of shark is Mark Cuban because I love Shark Tank.

Shark 31:28
Good answer.

Erin King 31:29
But I will say I have seen a shark once in the water when I was surfing in Mexico. And when they say your blood runs cold, I saw a chunk out of a fin and I said that is not a dolphin. And let me just say I did not stick around to find out what kind of shark it was I paddled in as fast as I could add took a few waves on the head and my heart was racing and I took me a couple weeks to get back in the water because it was terrifying the stealthiness of the fin just cruising by. It was it was definitely mind numbingly terrifying. So, as a surfer, I do not have a favorite shark. But you know, I know that they that the chance of being eaten by a shark or like one in a gajillion asilia I still don't want to test Mads

Shark 32:20
Erin, it's that special time the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked today? Sure, let's do it. Alright, number one, you wear sneakers on stage. So which is it? Nike or Adidas, which is your favorite?

Erin King 32:36
Adidas.

Shark 32:37
Okay, number two, you're a skinny Margarita kind of gal that I've read. So this is a two parter, frozen or on the rocks and salt on the rammer sugar,

Erin King 32:49
Rocks, no salt and I also have a recipe for what I call an anorexic Margarita, which is skinnier than skinny. Hey casamigos soda, fresh lime juice and the satis little boop of a Gabi just to be polite.

Shark 33:04
Nice Nice. Alright, number three, I know that you're a Saved by the Bell fan, including Miss Jessie Spano who was brilliantly portrayed by Elizabeth Berkeley who later went on to one of my favorite bad movies of all time, "Showgirls" for different reasons but I will flip the script and ask you this Zack Morris or AC Slater?

Erin King 33:23
AC Slater all day come on Mario Lopez

Shark 33:27
Yeah, I wouldn't know so number four because you talk about this all the time and we're gonna see where your loyalties lie. Notre Dame or Alabama if they were playing in a football game

Erin King 33:39
Alabama. Roll Tide.

Shark 33:40
Yeah, it sounds kind of unfair. I know you like the South anyway but

Erin King 33:44
I married Alabama

Shark 33:46
Alabama's gonna destroy them whether God helps Notre Dame or not. I'm afraid so. Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're going to be asked today is biscuits or cornbread?

Erin King 33:56
Cornbread.

Shark 33:58
Alright, fair enough. Erin, where can people find out more about you keep up with what you're doing. Get a copy of the book and more.

Erin King 34:04
Well, now I'm hungry for cornbread. Erin King dot com. Everything's right there. I'm also I spend time on Instagram. That's my social media place of choice. It's a love hate relationship. But I'm there most days to just send me a DM I'll do my best to connect with you.

Shark 34:19
Awesome. Thank you Erin so much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Erin King 34:24
Thanks Kenneth

Shark 34:29
So there was my conversation with Erin King, a three time entrepreneur, international keynote speaker helping people communicate more compellingly in the digital age, and the author of both digital persuasion as well as her newest book, you're kind of a big deal.

Shark 34:42
Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with her.

Shark 34:45
First, Erin starts us off with a great point and I'll paraphrase it a bit. We need an audacious level of bravery and courage and be able to test and learn like never before as we reinvent everything. Love that.

Shark 34:57
Second is Erin said it's easier to be a coach than players sometimes, and we often have to preach the lessons we need to learn the most great point about how we create content is what you're posting serving just you or is it serving your audience? Is it me, me, me, or for them than them. I love that she has a curated Board of Directors as she calls it, to keep her humble. So who keeps you grounded? Who truly looks at what you post and really tells you the truth?

Shark 35:23
Third, with social posts, any phrase that doesn't have the word "I" in the first sentence is helpful. And does it make it just you based You the one that posted it? And she said, it will help flip your brain into a space of service and not just being braggadocious? use phrases like have you ever and imagine that you? It will help you frame your story so that it isn't all about you. She teaches us to show about us, but type about them. And I love the question she posts is about content creation. Are you better for having scroll by a piece of content?

Shark 35:54
Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective dot com.

Shark 35:58
Thank you again for the privilege of your time. And I'm so thankful to everyone who listens. Thank you to the amazing sponsors Invoca and Drips. And would you please consider writing a review and letting me know your thoughts? I read them all. It helps me create better content for the both of us.

Shark 36:12
Yes, indeed you are kind of a big deal and I'm honored that you joined us today. Keep Swimming. And please join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.
[music]


 This episode of “A Shark’s Perspective” Podcast is brought to you by our incredible sponsors, Drips and Invoca.

 
 
 

Shark Trivia

Did You Know that Sharks Like to Visit Laguna Beach….

….where you can find seven miles of beaches off Southern California’s coast nestled between two harbors, Newport Beach Harbor and Dana Point Harbor?

If looking for sharks, then snorkelers and divers in the O.C. (Orange County) may come across Leopard Sharks who frequently inhabit the area.

Juvenile Great White Sharks also make Southern California home because the water does not get cold enough for the sharks to leave in the winter. Hammerhead Sharks, Mako Sharks, and Blue Sharks are also common along the coastal area.

Laguna Beach also is the home to the only marine reserve on the Southern California coast where it is prime feeding grounds for marine mammals on their yearly migrations. The area is full of whales, dolphins, and other sea life like the garibaldi.

About the “Shark” and Host of A Shark’s Perspective

Kenneth "Shark" Kinney is a keynote speaker, accomplished marketer, lead generation driver, and business growth consultant. He is passionate about leveraging data in omni-channel strategies and known for driving growth in Digital Marketing and Advanced and Addressable TV. He's led national campaigns working with brands including Acxiom, Citi, Chase, Target, GM, American Express, FedEx, Honda, Toyota, TD Ameritrade, Panera, TruGreen, and over 50 colleges and universities. He has also been an on air host and producer of TV and Radio programs.

Connect with me:

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