E327 - How do kind folks finish first in business? | with Sam Jacobs

The One Big Tip Podcast with Jeff Mendelson

Sam Jacobs is the author of a new bestselling book "Kind Folks Finish First: The Considerate Path to Success in Business and Life". Weaving practical business lessons with fresh perspectives on how you can achieve success. Sam focuses on proven principles that have helped thousands reach their goals in every arena. He believes that helping others shouldn’t be a sacrifice, but rather a long-term strategy that can inspire your success, get you prepared to take the exit ramp, change direction, and charge your future with generosity. Sam is also the Founder and CEO of Pavilion, a global organization with over 9,000 Members and hubs in every major city in the world, with a private membership for leaders of all levels. Through this organization, Sam provides support, assistance, education, and career growth. Helping startup professionals grow more quickly with community-powered learning.

Pavilion primarily focuses on revenue, for sales leaders, marketing leaders, customer success leaders, and people talking to customers working with companies, to help them succeed. Providing community-powered learning, training, support, and resources to help individuals grow as professionals, helping them reach the C-Suite, eventually becoming CEOs and leaders, and in turn, helping their companies increase their effectivity through their membership. Through Pavilion University, an online training and learning course in schools they’ve built over a hundred in-person experiences every year. Groups meet regularly to share best practices and challenges and interact with each other for help and support.

Staying practical actually helps you be better at your job. From teaching people the math of unit economics and customer acquisition, all the way to negotiating your Executive Compensation Agreement and how to modify different employment agreements so that you can protect yourself better, and unlock your professional potential.

When they were originally growing, they had Chapter Heads, like a multi-level marketing organization where they would get paid a percentage of dues for people that they signed up. Ultimately it became big enough to not actively have to grow the membership and Sam created a program called Pavilion Ambassadors. People who advocate on behalf of Pavilion, in many different cities, companies, and industries and champion their success. Their growth strategy has come from word of mouth, really helping people and making an impact in their lives, the concept of net promoter score.

Sam’s book is about the story of his career and the founding of the company Pavilion when he decided to stop keeping score. Helping somebody and not sending them an invoice, in some ways, it’s the antithesis of everything that we've been taught. But it doesn't mean being foolish or naive, and it doesn't mean being completely innocent. If you can stop keeping score and believe in a non-zero-sum world where there are a lot of macroeconomic factors that might impact your success on any given day relative to not keeping score. The message is about differentiation in a competitive world.

Professional success isn't all that it's cracked up to be, be ambitious, try your hardest, and be diligent. But separate yourself from the pack by investing in kindness, and building relationships, not transactions. Create goodwill, invest in karma, and then watch what comes back to you.

In this episode:

[02:00] Pavilion University is an online training course in schools focused on revenue and sales.

• How to make money for your company.
• Over a hundred in-person experiences.

[04:49] The labor market claims that we're not in a recession.

• Coinbase laying off 20% of its employees.
• Comparing working in Corporate with 300 people to working by yourself and missing interacting with others.

[08:03] There’s a need for key champions within the community.

• Creating the program called Pavilion Ambassadors.
• Having a growth strategy historically comes from word of mouth.

[10:45] Stop keeping score and believe in a non-zero-sum world.

• Macroeconomic factors that might impact your success.
• Things you can do to advance your career.

[13:58] Create goodwill, invest in karma, and watch what comes back to you.

• The idea and philosophy that led to Pavilion's success.
• I'm not gonna convert this guy.

[18:11] Like-minded people with shared goals and values come together to help and support

each other.

• Over a hundred Salon style thought-leadership dinners yearly.
• Those 15-minute segments.