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In this episode, I get to speak with Jake Jordan. He solves growth challenges for cause driven organizations. He’s the founder and co-host for the unlearn show, an amazing show that started over a year ago and they are breaking bad habits and building new ones. He’s been a hobbyist, consultant for strategy and has been helping solve organizational challenges around communications.

Our Guest

Jake Jordan

Hacks to Take Away

  • What a lot of successful people do, is they hit a wave at the right time, and they’d have the right experiences.
  • How he solves growth challenges for cause driven organizations.
  • How to break bad habits and build new ones.
  • How he got into marketing communication roles.
  • Why does he  love the lessons that fitness teaches him?
  • He loves helping people, getting a spark or if they have a spark pushing them forward or giving momentum to people are unleashing momentum for people. 
  • How he has more hobbies so that he could work on more things in his business.
——Sponsorship—— This podcast brought to you by our generous sponsors. It is hosted by Anchor and distributed to the many platforms available to you to listen on. If you’re interested in sponsoring this podcast please connect on the networks below. ——Connect Here!—— You can find Hacks & Hobbies on these popular social media networks: Facebook: fb.com/hacksandhobbies LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/hacksandhobbies Instagram: instagram.com/hacksandhobbies Twitter: twitter.com/hacksandhobbies or through our website: hacksandhobbies.com — Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hacksandhobbies/support
Read Full Transcript

Junaid Ahmed 0:10
Thank you for tuning in to hacks and hobbies with your host Junaid. In Season Two of hacks and hobbies were visited by our amazing guests coming from all walks of life want to learn their story, their struggles and their journey on how they got to where they are today. So stick around.

In this episode, I get to speak with Jake Jordan. He's a solve growth challenge. Wait, he solves growth challenges for cause driven organizations. But more than this more than just that. He's the founder and host co host for the unlearn show, an amazing show that started over a year ago and they're breaking bad habits and building new ones. Jake, thank you so much for your time and coming onto the show.

Jake Jordan 1:14
Absolutely Junaid appreciate you having me.

Junaid Ahmed 1:17
Absolutely. Thank you. So, um, tell me a little bit about your journey and story. And how did you get here? And what inspired you?

Jake Jordan 1:29
Yeah, so, you know, they're, it's social media got me here for and today.

Like a lot of us. I've heard you know, several of your episodes, and you know, most of us end up meeting on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram or some form of something these days. Yeah, it's, it's no difference here. And But personally, you know, I, I'm very entrepreneurial, and my dad's entrepreneurial and kind of a inventor type mind. And, and so, you know, I've just really spent probably, like you a lot of time, trying out new things and putting in a new hobby, once a week, once a month, just kind of as it seems fit. Because I love to learn. And I love to learn from experience, specifically, that I feel like there's something about actually going out and doing something and trying it out that you just can't learn any other way. And so yeah, so I've been on an interesting vocational journey that's unique to myself, and probably wouldn't recommend it for everybody. But Gosh, it's been a lot of fun. And there's been heartache and, and pain, but it's been a lot of really cool growth moments too. So yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 2:45
that's, you know, what I like about what you just said, is, I like to experience it on my own. Right, and build that experience or learn learn it by doing, because a lot of at times, you could just read books, and see how somebody else did it. And, and what I've what I've heard is a lot of smart people to the book route full. Maybe I'm not smart, because I like to it. And like to experience trauma, you know, firsthand, I guess. That's really cool. That's really cool. Like it. And so I see here from your professional history, you've been in in a lot of communication and communication. Pretty call it rolls, rolls. Yeah. And focus on that area. So what is it? Like? How have you been able to transform that into the different ideas that you come up with? different hobbies that you get into? Sure.

Jake Jordan 4:02
So, you know, I really, there's, there's two things I'm super passionate about in life. And one of them is, is communication, but particularly why people communicate the way they do. Why? Why do they make the decisions to communicate the way they do? And

Junaid Ahmed 4:16
yeah, how do they absorb

Jake Jordan 4:19
all types of, you know, visual audio? Like, I'm just fascinated by people how the brain absorbs information, and it makes decisions. Yeah. So you know, in college, I actually was a broadcast journalism major, and, you know, did radio and TV and stuff like that. And then, you know, marketing was really kind of my, my backup to my backup, because originally, I wanted to be a major league baseball player. Yeah. And that's just it out. And then the broadcast was the backup for that. So okay, well, then I'll just call games for my favorite baseball team. Texas Rangers here locally. And then I figured out real quickly, when actually got, you know, like we were talking about I went out and did, yeah, Sports Radio locally and stuff out in West Texas, that nice, gosh, nobody made any money. Unless they were in a top five market. And they were like the man or the woman. And so I was like, well, I can't really raise a family on that. And I honestly want to make more money than that. So now what? And so then that's where I really took a deep dive and looking at, gosh, what is it? What is it that I'm really passionate about behind this? Yeah, and what will intrinsically get me up in the morning, so that I'm not like just digging every day for motivation to go to work. So that's, that's kind of how, you know, I started my foray into like trying 100,000 different things. Because, in my mind, if I could try a bunch of things, then I would find some similarities and some overlap. And yeah, you know, when I speak to students at colleges, or, you know, young entrepreneurs and things like that, a lot of times, that's what I say, just just go try something. And you're going to find out what you like, and you don't like, and there's not a quicker way to do it, or a more memorable way for that matter. And you'll probably make some good friends and network along the way. So that's kind of how it started. For me. That's how I got into marketing communication roles. And I started out as an entrepreneur, with my family actually doing real estate investment, and I was the marketing part of that. And we were super successful, we happen to be in a really great part of the country at a really great time in the early 2000s to real estate. And that's where I cut my teeth. That's kind of where it started.

Junaid Ahmed 6:37
Nice. Very cool. I like that. And I really like the point again, back to do what you want to try. Because people might tell you, oh, this is a, this is a place to go. And then you're going to make money and blah, blah. But are you really happy. And what's what's really interesting is I had a conversation last night, and and I was talking to my friend, and they're like, well, you're doing all these things, but which one is going to give you the big money. And you know how you can support your family. And those are, those are absolutely positive points. Because podcasting doesn't make a lot of money either. Unless you're in the top, you know, the top 100 or top 10 then maybe you have the authority to go and look for sponsors and whatnot. But then, it all comes down to I'm really passionate about learning about myself learning about other stories and how I can find a cross section. A point where it just clicks in my head. And I'm like, cold that path. Yep. Love it.

Jake Jordan 7:50
Yep, for sure. And you know, I think for people like us, it's like any other strength or weakness? It depends on one, right? And so one of my weaknesses is doing too much. Yeah. And not focusing on on one or two things. And really finding out a way to, to either product ties it or monetize it, or both. Yeah. And then choose whether I want to continue doing it or not. Because I have a feeling that you're like me and that I quickly burnout on things. I like novelty and new things. And I like experiencing for a while and some things longer than others. Yeah, I'm off to the next thing because that's what I like, I like something new and novel and there are certain things I've done forever. Like I've I've always been into fitness and I love the lessons that fitness teaches you.

Junaid Ahmed 8:37
Yeah.

Jake Jordan 8:38
Typically on longevity and consistency and results over time and things like that. But there's not a ton of other things in my life. Besides, you know, just really important relationships and fitness. But that's stuck with outside of you know, communication and performance. That's the other thing I didn't you know, really talked about earlier, but I think that's it otherwise I'm you know, like you're a beekeeper like yeah, that's awesome. My sister's tried that and she she failed and you may try again, but like that's cool. Station starter.

Junaid Ahmed 9:11
Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's, it's really cool. Like, anytime I tell people like yeah, I'm a beekeeper. Like what? How did you get into it? How did bees just come into your backyard? Do you just put a house out? And then they just came in? like no

Jake Jordan 9:28
other bird house?

Junaid Ahmed 9:30
And then they're like, what did? How did they come back? Why didn't Why don't they leave? Oh, well, the Queen lives here. It's like you build a castle, you bring the queen and now the bees are going to say unless they decide to leave, you know, swarm out or whatever. But is really cool experience and getting to beekeeping and then just learning about it seven years ago or? And no, I mean, it all came down to okay. local honey is great for seasonal allergies. And my son has a head of has a ton of allergies, being seasonal allergies, one of the big ones. And Dr. allergist was like you know, local honey is really good. And I was like, okay, local honey, you got to find local honey. And then one thing led to another there was a Kickstarter campaign going on about honey flow and how it's so much easy, so easy to like, pour the honey out of your beehive of like, Okay, this looks more easier, easier as I go. But, um, and then finally, I had the means and the location to support a beehive. So I got into it last year, I took a class I you know, going to all the beekeeper meetings, and to call beaks because you know, beekeepers. So all the big meetings, and then it was just, it was just one thing after another and then learning in. And now I'm a mentor to other beekeepers.

Jake Jordan 11:00
Cool how necessity really is kind of the mother.

Junaid Ahmed 11:03
Oh my god mention,

Jake Jordan 11:04
right? Because like all these these hobbies that I pick up and probably you come out have some idea of why hasn't someone fix this? Or Yes, I could do this a little bit better and wouldn't take that long.

Junaid Ahmed 11:14
Exactly. I love it. It's solving our own problems, right? Yes, solving your own problems. And that's one thing. Steve Jobs mentioned, when when, you know, building products. And they're like, we don't ask somebody else what we should make, solve our own problems. And when they when they came up with the iPod and the iTunes collaboration, they're like we're solving our own problem. We love music, but we want a way to manage this music easily. It transferred to IRR listening device easily. So we built the system, as buddy else likes it flow. Hooray. Yep. So just resonated with me, you know, all the things that he's mentioned in his book, and I'm kind of sad that I didn't get to meet him in person. But you know, his work just, it just lives on forever?

Jake Jordan 12:09
Definitely. I mean, most of us have a Mac in our hand today.

So if we can afford it.

Junaid Ahmed 12:15
It's it's really, really awesome. So being a communication and marketing, you know, focused, and what are the some of the platforms that you found that you found really helpful to, you know, move forward your agenda and move forward what you're passionate about? So that's

Jake Jordan 12:40
it? That's a big question. Cuz this is, the longer I've gone. And then maybe this speaks to a bit more about my journey is, you know, I do love I'm a front runner when it comes to technology. So I mean, I mean, I was even on tech talk, you know, like it was, like I musically before. Yeah, talk. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it's Same here. My kids love music. My son's a drummer. So it was an easy transition for us.

Junaid Ahmed 13:05
Yeah.

Jake Jordan 13:06
But but the tools don't really matter to me as much. They really are agnostic, I believe. Some of them you like and some of you you don't like I The older I get, the more I care about frameworks. processes, is not me. Like if you know me, personality wise, I'm really like the thing on the background of my Facebook says on the steady spark that equips and emboldens the cause driven Yes, I just love helping people I get a spark or if they have a spark pushing them forward or given momentum to people are unleashing momentum for people are. So like, that's like processes are not in my Yeah, standard personality profile. But it which kind of leads into like my second passionate of just performance, and its really purpose performance is that I figured out kind of in my mid real estate investing, we're

Junaid Ahmed 14:01
that

Jake Jordan 14:02
scale was important to me, because I wanted not because I wanted to make, like just tons and tons of money, which it does help you do. Right. But because I wanted to spend more time on the things that I was really passionate about, inside that business not not even talking about I want to go jump out of a plane, you know, or, you know, whatever. Yeah, I'm just talking about, like the parts of the real estate investing, I enjoyed the relationship building and the collaborations and connecting people and stuff like that, right. And so I had to find a way to scale my marketing efforts. And that was not possible number one, from a skill standpoint, because there's just three of us, me and my mom and my dad. Yeah, we each had a very specific role. And then number two, I was not skilled at it to be able to just, you know, wake up and do the right things and go to bed. Yeah. And so like, my personal Like, right now, what I primarily do is I coach and I train executive isn't teams, how to basically put a process in place that they can replicate over and over and over and over and over and over, yet helps them get unstuck. So when I say, you know, help people overcome rough challenges, it actually doesn't really matter what the specific growth challenges, you know, there's a general john Maxwell Ziegler, you know, process in place somewhere, yeah, I have, it's mine, that says you're stuck in one of these three spots. Now, every different business problems can look different, but the framework doesn't change. And that allows me to, like, go to bed at night, and not feel like my best today for the public. And so, but that only happened, because I had to create that for myself. Yeah, do more hobbies so that I could work on more things in my business that I liked, that I could go to bed and go, I actually did my best work today, like I fulfilled and what I did. So, and fulfillment different but like,

Junaid Ahmed 15:55
feeling

Jake Jordan 15:57
great about my effort is really kind of I'm talking about there.

Junaid Ahmed 16:01
No, I am. I'm right there with you. And and you're you're absolutely right. You know, it's like having processes in place. Like you mentioned, like how my,

Jake Jordan 16:13
my, you're on board for your podcast was fantastic. And I could tell it was automated because I use the same type of tools, but it felt really good.

Junaid Ahmed 16:20
Yeah. And I was like, that's really interesting. And like you said, you know, as you're growing older, you want those automation in place. So you can have more time to do the fun stuff.

Jake Jordan 16:32
Yeah, like this, right? Like this.

Junaid Ahmed 16:33
Exactly. This is the fun stuff of the project. Like I'm always picking up new stuff from Home Depot or from different places, because of a project that I want to do. Like some I was at Michael's the other day, and I picked a foam board and painting because I want to I want to make this nice calligraphy nameplate for my my sons and my daughter and put it in their rooms. But I just don't have the time to sit down and like to do those things. And the other day I went to Home Depot and I picked up these wood floor plan those because I want to put them up on the wall and can be a backdrop for my videos when I shoot. It's like, wow, there's so many projects. There's so many started like unstarted projects waiting in the house. It's crazy. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Jake Jordan 17:23
Yeah, we all have our own piles. Yes. Some of them are in our head. And some of them are out for everyone can see. Right, exactly.

Junaid Ahmed 17:30
So once we have these animations in place, now I can go play, right now I can go do those projects. And, and I'm just like, I'm getting to a point where I'm almost there, right? I'm just climbing this hill was them over the hill that I can be like are I'm going to work on this project, this project. Those are done. I can, you know, videotape it posted on whatever. And this is what I'm doing this was happening and be more active in the social media part of thing and sharing more. And it's just, it's just taking, it's just taking a lot of time for me to get through to get to that point. It's It's crazy. I love it. I love that part of that journey. It's It's exciting. It is. So tell me a little about so you're not gonna have to forgive me, but I haven't had a chance to watch any of the unlearn show. episodes. I know. It's really gonna send you a link to my to my two favorites. All right, good. Perfect. Because I've actually, I'm like, I have seen a couple of the episodes all the way through, but it's really like is really super powerful. And and I know you're in season three now. Right? And so how did you get the six panelists together? Hmm. Right, like, okay, we're all on the same page. Yeah. Oh, Chantel, Katie Lacey, sunny and yourself. And it's, it's like, wow, like, this is really this is a powerhouse right here.

Jake Jordan 19:12
Yeah, that's so that was really organic. That was not something it did come Sunday, and I kind of had this, he and I connected first. Out of the group, we're kind of the, for like, the official cofounders or whatever, because it was all kind of a big, organic thing. But Sunday now we're like, Hey, we need to do something together. And we both have a real passion for people growing. And so you know, it's been like you said, it's been a year, year and a half, almost since we started and we really just kind of like a lot of podcasters. I know. Yeah. Like to delve into people's journeys. Yeah. So it became this really easy thing where when link LinkedIn, released native videos, and they were, you know, late to the party on that. But they finally did it and it exploded, like everyone knew it would Sonny, and myself and Chantel and Katie and Lacey were all early adopters, we were all kind of in that first hundred 200 people that got it. Nice. And so we were we were kind of in that first group, or we were the only people we saw on video on LinkedIn. Yeah. And so quickly developed this this friendship and became fast friends and Sunday night, we're like, hey, look, we should have podcasting. Before I haven't this idea that we should start a show instead of just doing a one on one podcast. But yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of everyone's doing that there's nothing wrong with that. But like, I would like to actually do a show. And that way we can say we had the first show on LinkedIn. So that's, that's really that, honestly, how it started? And it was like, Okay, what, what were we already talking about? And it was like, let's, we're unpacking people's journeys. And then so once again, you know, it, there's no credit, everyone gets credit, where it was this big organic thing is, but like my thinking, when when this whole thing started was I, we were all kind of contrarians like the personalities on the show. We all have this version and experience of our life, where we've had to push it back against what the norm is. Yeah, in some way, shape, or form. And so we were like, everyone's on here learning. Learning section, it was Linda, and it was LinkedIn learning. What's what if people had to, like undo we've had to unlearn because that's honestly, sometimes the bigger transformations are, like stop believing lives that you've been told or unlearn these unhealthy things that have taken over your life and made you unsuccessful or unhappy. And so that's it. We just kind of ran with that. And I couldn't even tell you how we all got in the same room the first time. Yeah, we did. We instantly clicked. And we had some really fantastic guests on our first season that were just powerhouses already. And it took off. And we had something like 2 million views. The first season and but but just because we had a really, I think, novel idea at the right time with some great guests did a great part and sharing, you know, the episodes and I believe in timing, to mark Malcolm Gladwell talks about people being equipped and had with experiences, and then at the right time do the right thing. And so I thought that's what a lot of successful people do, is they they hit a wave at the right time, and they'd have the right experiences. And they just take advantage. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's kind of like how it started. Now, if you ask the for the people, they want to version right, which would i would that might be a good idea for a show.

Junaid Ahmed 22:57
Absolutely. Absolutely. No, that's just really, really interesting. And I kept thinking, you know, it's the first show on LinkedIn. Have you and and my mind just goes all over the place about well, there's so many other platforms that you can have in that. And I think you've put, you put the show on Youtube Now also, right? Yep. Season Two, we started putting on YouTube. And then season three, we got it on Spotify and iTunes and in all the other places on the other places. Well as as a video show, I think it would be really good on Amazon Prime also, huh?

Jake Jordan 23:35
Yeah. So we have the three seasons up on there. We have actually talked to people about that. We've talked to directors and some things like that. But it today, it just hasn't come to fruition. But yeah, we've we've absolutely thought about making it. You know, something something bigger.

Hi, probably timing and

Junaid Ahmed 23:55
oh, yeah, timing. Absolutely. So, um, another tangent is with Amazon Prime. Just like you can self publish self post products to sell on Amazon. Self Publish through their KDX platform for Kindle. You can also upload videos, short films, feature length films, TV shows, wow. On on, on Amazon by yourself. I didn't know that. That's what I meant

Jake Jordan 24:26
about now. We actually talked about going with a production company who was okay. Okay. You know, that would be a big, big production. Oh, yeah. And there's a whole lot more to that than most people know. Yeah, absolutely. It's so huge. I mean, pre production is

Junaid Ahmed 24:43
probably 80% of all.

Jake Jordan 24:46
All it is. And yeah, what most people don't know is that you spend six to eight months in pre production and then you spend a week or two shooting the actual show exact the whole season.

Junaid Ahmed 24:56
Yes, all seasons done in two weeks. It's it's very true. And being a being a form of being a filmmaker myself. We just finished a short film on beekeeping last month, and we're looking to do a longer documentary on it. On the state of beekeepers in you know, the DMV area. DC, Maryland and Virginia. It's been a been a pretty fun experience. And through being in the film industry film, and I got to meet like a lot of cool people like Tom Malloy of bankroll, which is a book on raising money for films and like indie films and whatnot. So cool. That was an awesome chat.

Jake Jordan 25:48
Yeah, that's what kind of like earlier when I just kind of mentioned it in passing is when you go do these things. Yeah. You meet people that later on you just have no idea what type of connection is there and host a LinkedIn local here in Dallas Fort Worth one of them free, because we're so big, but yeah, one of the guys that spoke what was saying that like, just just be friends, be become friends with people and be genuinely interested in them. Because they're just giving you all this gold about themselves. And just be interested in and do what you gotta do to you know, dial in and listen and and jot some notes down if you need to, or whatever. But like, those opportunities, almost the time. And relationships aren't available, like today. Oh, my God, its future, right? Yeah. So like it, you're just like that, right? It's, it's like, now you have a connection there. And if you wanted to bankroll something, you could at least start there and say, who do I need to talk to you? right?

Junaid Ahmed 26:47
Exactly, exactly. And it's, it's so it's so much. It's so much fun when you actually dial it in. being authentic, being yourself and just talking about and listening in, you know, talking about what you're passionate about. And then you find other people that are passionate about their stuff. And it's just, it's just really exciting. I got to meet with this one, dude. And he's in special effects. It's like, Oh, that's pretty cool. What software do you use? Like, no, no, I don't use any software. I do actual special effects. Like, whoa, movie style, like movie style. Like, all the special effects that we saw on Michael Jackson, thriller. That's the kind of stuff he's doing. Like, Holy smokes. That's so exciting. And then he showed me this costume. This costume he's built, which is about 10 foot tall. I'm like, Yeah, I just did this for fun. Wow.

Jake Jordan 27:44
Yeah. I've got one of those friends. That's crazy. Yeah, it's Halloween costumes are like, amazing. cosplay is like,

Junaid Ahmed 27:51
Yeah. Like, that's really cool. So, um, yeah, man. Like, like network, like people give networking a really bad name. Because of what, what? what it has a connotation against around a guess. But the type of network that you want to do is go to meetup. com. What are you passionate about? Look for that term. Right? There's people meeting up about that specific topic. It could be know building a drone, it could be you just your mind is I mean, you just have to search. And there's ton of people meeting about it.

Jake Jordan 28:34
Yep, yep. And that's why I like LinkedIn locals, because I think that's how that concept started was, hey, let's not come out in speed date, you know, let's actually take a deeper dive, get to know some people actually make that part of our fabric and do that. And then, you know, as because I was an ad agency for almost 10 years. Yeah, marketing director. And, you know, one of the major things that I did differently from a marketing or a networking standpoint for our agency is I didn't go to all the same networking events that all the other ad agencies were at. Yeah, I went to networking events for things that employees were interested in, right. So you go to, you know, Java development. Yeah, type stuff with the design of the developers like, why are you here, your marketing director, I'm sure to meet people. I'm just here to get to know what, what people do and capabilities and learn something, but just develop some relationships, right? Yeah. And I just feel like that's such a more organic way to actually do it. Because of that defensive nature that comes with, hey, I'm gonna go to the chamber, and three people who tell what they do today, we're all just kind of scratch each other's back and such a small circle and world to live in.

Junaid Ahmed 29:48
You know, that's a really excellent point. And and what's what's interesting to me, is, when I was when I went to the two different events that I went to, I went to, I got to attend TEDx Ashburn, the first local, you know, TEDx event, where they had five speakers, and I introduced myself as a podcaster. And when when I introduced myself as a podcaster, and not anything else, like, Oh, that's really cool. And then I can go to the next point, and ask them, Hey, would you like to be on my podcast? Yep. And it was it felt so much more, so much more genuine. And I'm no longer Oh, I'm no longer saying, Oh, I'm a UX designer. Also, do beekeeping also do like, anytime? There's a ton of things. People, they get overwhelmed. Yep. And they're like, okay, I don't know what to talk to you about anymore? Yeah. Because you're all over the place.

Jake Jordan 30:44
Well, and I think that's one of the things that good people who are good at personal branding, and people are good at marketing their services do? Yes. They may be actually really good at five or six things. Yeah. But that's too much. It's too much information for people. And like one of the favorite sales mentors ever. And this is like 25 year old advice, like when I was a young pup. Yeah. Is that the confused? mind says no, it's it just, it always says no, because your brain like I don't know, she story brand is popular right now. And one of the things he says is that the brain is lazy, and it doesn't want to expend calories, it's actually designed to be as efficient as possible. So if you make it work, it's going to ignore you, if it if it can. So that I think it's a great point that you make is that I'm a podcaster. And I'm a I'm a trainer, coach. That's it, that's what I do. But hey, we're talking here. And I can tell you two more things so that I got my

Junaid Ahmed 31:45
know that that, you know, you put it in such so nicely. And it connects into one of the TED talks that I heard, you know, at TEDx Ashburn, from Candace, fatty and she talked about the mind a lot, and how there's, you know, three portions, three parts of our minds, there's the the frontal lobe, which processes everything. Then Then there's the the limbic brain, which, which is the actual processor that, you know, compiles all the information, that's where the intelligence lives. And then there's the defensive brain or the lizard brain, which, as soon as something comes in it, it flags it as spam to flake, the LinkedIn or LinkedIn algorithm. expand its market. Okay. Can we have to go further down? Okay, figure out what this is about? Is it? Is it going to trigger my flee, fight or freeze emotions? Or is everything safe that I can now start processing information? really good, really good? Yep. And that, you know, just this conversation about is going to help me redefine what my profile is going to say. Because right now, I'm all over the place. Yeah, in so many different things. And it's probably hindering my success. And, and you know, where I want to be? Yeah.

Jake Jordan 33:18
Yeah. Well, it's, it's, it's your being you. And right, though. It's like, it's not like, and you get all this advice that says, just be you and be really authentic you and yeah, but there's so much, there's only so much the brain can take, there's only so much that you only have so much time, people's, you know, attention spans so small that like, you have to hit them with something quickly and then expand as it's a mountain, then you start with a tip, right, and people can get to the to the to the base eventually. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of coaching I've done with executives actually started with just LinkedIn profiles, just coaching them through that sort of thing. Yeah, the number one thing that doesn't matter if this person owned a small business, and they were a solo printer, or they were the CC, you know, oh, of a fortune 100 company. Sure, that's the same pushback, because we're all human was, I don't want to limit who, you know, who I work with, I want everyone to know that I'm in business. And that's the opposite of how our brain works. And it's so it's like this huge contrast, like, over and over and over and over and over until you 1000 times, well, I don't want to remove that. Because What if someone sees it, and I want them to know I do that. But what everyone forgets, or at a maybe a diamond heard people work with experts. That's that's who they want the people they trust, who are competent. So if you have the expertise built in, in your language, all you gotta do is build trust then. So I get more business from people who say, hey, Jake, helped me with x, he could probably help you with XY. Yeah. Then I do going, how do these five things, and it's been proven 1000 times over by everyone who's tried it, is as soon as you dial in to the I Am the guy girl that does XI help cause driven companies off growth challenges, then, guess what, I'm getting video work. I'm getting SEO work I'm getting, you know, work for non cause driven companies doesn't matter. But because I'm, I've shown I'm an expert in one thing all the sudden, you know, and I think a saying that kind of is similar to that is that if you want something done, who do you give it to? You give it to a busy person? Yeah. Because busy people get stuff done, right? Yes, it's the same concept. Could you Who do you hire you hiring experts? I'll give you an expert in that. No, but they're close enough. Yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 35:47
no, you're close enough person. And that's, that's a really, really awesome point. Because when I wanted my logo done, I didn't just pick any, like, I asked a question, Facebook, and you know, who can do logos? And then I get tons of messages. And they're like, Oh, I do I do all of this stuff. And I also do logo and branding. Yeah. Like, no, I don't know if I want that. So then I went on in studio, and I found this one person who had done 5800 logos in the past five years. See, do an expert in design. Right. So I got a Oh my God, my mind is blown.

Jake Jordan 36:31
That's why like, I'm a performance expert. That's what I do. I'm a performance expert. So if you if there's, I can talk a lot of different ways about performance. But if you go, Hey, I'm stuck. I'm hitting the ceiling of hitting this wall. Yeah. I need to go see Jake, because he helps people do that. Right.

Yeah.

Junaid Ahmed 36:47
I good. Thank you, man. Yeah, good. All right. Because so so bit, so here's my other journey, right? I've been a user experience designer, but the past 20 years, our PR for the past 10 years and the designer for the past 20. And again, you know, anytime I'm solving a problem is a problem with you. What is the problem? How do I solve it? So going through those steps, but I haven't done those same steps for myself.

Yeah, cobblers, kids right now, how many shoes?

Yeah,

yeah. Okay. It's all of us.

Yep. Okay. That's fun. That's fun, man. I love it. Okay. Some of the fun stuff. I mean, we've been talking about a lot of fun stuff, hobbies and mind and and, and how we learned from doing so since both you and I have gone into many different hobbies, over our lives. What is the one hobby that you wish you got into music for sure.

Jake Jordan 37:55
There's just so many great things about what it does for your brain. And

I'm no outlet.

And so like I said, my my son's a drummer. Yeah. And he's picked up piano now too nice. And I bought a piano last year, actually one of those ones that look like looks like a stand up saloon, one that you see in movies. And I started to pick up piano last year, just because I thought it was a good place to start, but I just dropped it. But Gosh, that's that's one that I always wish I picked up a guitar in college and played for six months, I've started and stopped some instrument probably five or six times. So yeah, that's I think that's the one for me, because it's just I know, it teaches you so many things, not just how to play the instrument. Yeah. And it's such a great outlet. Because you can't always you can't work out all the time. And no, it's not effective. And you just can't, physically in a day, whereas if you have something in your house and you can just pick it up. Yeah. That's definitely the one for me. What about you?

Junaid Ahmed 38:56
And hobby that I got into I wish I got into music more to I had picked up. You know, I used to be in the band.

Many, many years ago. And then my brother took over. I, I played the bass a little bit. I couldn't get a handle of the guitar. I always wanted to play the guitar. I always wanted to play the drums never. I couldn't get the the disconnected rhythm. Because you gotta have you know, different rhythm. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Um, so that's something that I always shake, you know, got into more. But growing up in a Muslim family, where my dad never really listened to music, you know, it's like it was always frowned upon. So, and I have a huge passion for music. So I would listen to music, you know, when everyone's sleeping and eating and my headphones. And so I absolutely love music, I turn the music on whenever whenever I'm working, it helps me It helps my and I'm because I might have ADHD, so it helps your mind focus. And a lot of people say, you know, what are you talking about? You can't focus when you have music on, then you're listening to music? Like No, no, my mind works differently.

Jake Jordan 40:20
Right? Right. It gives me something to occupy it so that you can focus on the thing you're really trying to focus on. Exactly. So so well. It's amazing, right? Like the studies that come back from like, and this is not a joke intentionally. What's the one? You lose your memory when you get older?

Junaid Ahmed 40:37
I'll suffers with that. Alzheimer's.

Jake Jordan 40:40
Yeah, Alzheimer's, like the amount of recovery of memory that comes with music therapy. Yeah, it does something to calm the mind and unblock things. So it's, it's it's it's science, man. It's Yeah. I mean, it's preference to but yeah,

Junaid Ahmed 40:54
yeah. And I think something else that's helping all timers is virtual reality. And like, putting people in places because a lot of people, a lot of the people that have Alzheimer's can't really move around like they used to, right. So put them in the situation and virtual reality. Well, now it's triggering all sorts of neurons in their heads, and bringing those memories back. So I guess. All right. Next question. What is your favorite movie or TV show? Oh, man. Well, I see, gosh, this is my favorite question, by the way.

Jake Jordan 41:34
Okay, because you learn a lot from

Junaid Ahmed 41:36
the I learned a lot. And then there's so many connections you form after that.

Jake Jordan 41:40
Yeah, that's true. That is a good question.

So I would say my favorite TV show in recent history is Sherlock the BBC,

with Benedict Cumberbatch.

I love old books. Yeah. Love, wisdom, not just knowledge. And so I feel like that kind of connects back to a day of kind of classic thoughts and classic. Yeah, that it kind of it is a throwback, but it's good. I like how they modernized it. still kept all the elements that made Sherlock Sherlock from the books. Yeah. And of course, Cumberbatch is an amazing actor. And so is the guy who plays john, from the Hobbit and stuff like that. So that's definitely my I would say that's definitely my more recently, my favorite TV show as far as movies go now. So that's, that's a big, big question. Because I have such an eclectic taste when it comes to music and movies. And partially because the way you and I think probably are built is to enjoy just Earth. Just think cool things that go on.

Some of them are, you know, like,

Guys, I like the Lord of the Rings stuff. I like fantasy. And, you know, I enjoy Star Wars and Avengers and all the stuff that everyone else does. Yeah, but also like momento was an interesting movie to me. Oh, my God, but that one where the whole movies backwards? Yes. It doesn't reverse. That was really cool. For me. I like I like storytelling that's not mainstream, but doesn't do it just to be weird. Yeah, makes sense. Because there's so many weird movies out there that they try and break the proven story are connects you but people that get creative with the story arc because like, you know, when you study this stuff, you know, there's the six or seven story arcs that every every movie and every book has ever, inside of. Yeah. And that works. Because that's those work, because that's how our brain processes information, like you're talking about, right? Yeah, but movies like memento, put a new twist on it.

So that would be something I really like.

I don't watch a lot of TV and movies. And yeah,

I just

Yeah, because it's hard. There's so much to sift through anymore. And I like to do so I love to sit down and watch a movie if I know my time. But otherwise I'd be out doing something.

Junaid Ahmed 44:15
Exactly. I totally get you man. And talking about momentum, we wanted to use the timeline of momento as a as a, we call it a model for our short film. But like Gordon's reverse, like, you start with the honey. And you go back to the store, like somebody picked? Yeah, delivering the honey. Where does this come from? Right. The Hive, but we just didn't have a we just didn't have it written correctly. Or so we ended up doing a documentary instead, which was which is still a lot of fun. Right? We still kind of got to the bees. And it's just

Jake Jordan 45:01
I read they actually filmed the whole thing in correct order. And then they went back and re filmed to certain

parts of it to make it feel better going in reverse.

Junaid Ahmed 45:12
Yeah, yeah. See, it's nicely done. Yeah.

I mean, next, next up is um, I guess this is kind of related. But who is your favorite superhero?

Jake Jordan 45:27
Well, okay, so I grew up a superman fan. I'm a DC guy actually. Unfortunately, they just haven't

they haven't hit a nail on the head yet.

Yeah, yep. So I some of them are fine but so more recently Captain America as part of the Marvel Universe is probably you see a trend now like I like the good guy. The Yeah, the the moral center of the tends to be who I relate with. So those are the two that I I particularly like,

Junaid Ahmed 45:56
but talking about the DC Universe. I think they're doing something right or I don't know if you say it wrong, but with Aqua man and I think the Chisholm I think they got a lot better rating than Batman. Superman.

Jake Jordan 46:13
Yeah. Aqua man was okay.

I still feel like it was really really formulaic and away. And also I grew up with a blonde man when I was growing up in the comics, so there's just something weird about that to me. I love MIMO he's awesome. I loved him for him. Yeah, that kind of disconnect for me. And then I actually thought Wonder Woman was the best DC movie to date. You really felt like they were super true to the comics. And it felt like Wonder Woman like Lynda Carter HS you know, like, and then I did like she's and she's an was funny. I really was entertaining and it felt good. And I think you're right. I think she's James probably one of the better. Oh, and then this has nothing to do with with DC. But my second favorite Marvel movie now is Spider Man end of this spider verse.

Junaid Ahmed 47:11
Oh, my god, that was Hulk is such nicely done. really nicely done. Yeah.

Jake Jordan 47:18
Because we have all the Avenger movies, but like, I think it was better than almost all of them.

Junaid Ahmed 47:23
Yeah. No, absolutely. There is because so here's here's what I see it pattern in this in this area is one. We're still used to watching Spider Man, Superman. And sorry, Superman and Batman for the past three decades. Right? Right. And we have these notions that this is this person. And when they try to redo the movies and their own view, it doesn't. It doesn't jive with us. But then movies with Wonder Woman and ocho man and she, Sam. Their movies have never been done before. Maybe they have I don't have any recollection. Right?

Jake Jordan 48:01
Yeah, I was talking to my son about that yesterday. Because we watch Doctor Who together

Junaid Ahmed 48:06
Yeah. I love that show.

Jake Jordan 48:08
Yeah, we love Doctor Who, but nothing against a woman as the doctor. But for 50 years. The doctor has been a man. Yes. So it's just this dissonance in your brain. I they were talking about I was like, don't get me wrong. Jackson. Like, I think she she could have her own. She's a great actress. She's great. But she's not Doctor Who. It should be doctor who's cousin or doctor who's got, you know, like they did in Bourne Identity. Right? They brought in Jeremy Renner. Yeah. Tried to be Jason Bourne. He was just another agent with his own story and experiences. So you're right. There's that cognitive dissonance that Yeah, once you learn it one way, it's it's not that I hate your way. It's just this is the way I learned it to sell

Junaid Ahmed 48:52
and learn it. And they should come on the online show, man. That's right. Love it. So Jake, where can my audience find you?

Jake Jordan 49:04
Yeah, so I spend most of my time on LinkedIn and Instagram. Okay. LinkedIn on just forward slash Jake Jordan. And I'm bald, so I'm pretty easy to find. If you look up Jake Jordan, I'm the bald guy. And then I'm bald Jake,

Junaid Ahmed 49:18
on. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Cool, man. I'll be sure to include the links on the podcast. And let your own scams out. Thank you so much for your time. Jake. This was this was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. Thanks. Appreciate it. I really do because a lot of fun. Awesome. Talk to you soon. Alright.

Jake Jordan 49:39
Have a good one.

Junaid Ahmed 49:40
I'm trying to stop the podcaster my zoom is frozen. Is it? But um, I hope I didn't lose it. I don't know what happened. All right. Meeting Cal my frozen. I think some apps might be trying to take over.

Jake Jordan 50:03
Yeah. And close a couple of years. I had that happen a couple times because I we record everything I learned on zoom.

Yeah. And so

even when I shut it down, it typically saves.

Junaid Ahmed 50:13
Okay, good. So don't worry about most cool, man. Well, this is fun. I hope I can shut this down and we'll talk real soon. Yeah, man. Appreciate it. Keep in touch for sure. I will do take care.

Jake Jordan 50:31
Have a good day. You too.

Junaid Ahmed 50:36
graduations you made it to the end of the episode. Thanks so much for listening to our guest on this episode. Please send me an email at Junaid at hats and hobbies. com to tell me what you loved about our guests today. You could find links mentioned in this episode of the hacks and hobbies. com website.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Junaid Ahmed has been a user experience designer for over 15 years. As a UX professional, he uses the user-centered design philosophy to come up with solutions. Trust the system, it works!

“People say that we only live once, but I believe in living every day!”

Junaid has been interviewing people from all walks of life on his podcast Hacks and Hobbies.