Welcome to do this not that, the podcast for marketers.

We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode.

We also keep it short like this intro.

Let's check it out.

We are back for do this not that podcast presented by Merrill.

And we have possibly an all time guest here today.

We really do.

A legendary guy, a good friend, Jeremy Byers is here.

Who's Jeremy?

I'm going to tell you.

Jeremy is besides the fact that he's the Chief Communications officer at United Systems and Software, which by the way, is this end to end technology utility company software solution.

They work with over 1500 customers in over 22 states.

What he does, okay, for this company is he's responsible basically a lot.

Okay?

The company, messaging and content collateral, all the HubSpot stuff, managing marketing, sales.

He does a lot.

But he's here for two reasons.

One, he is you in that the guy has more on his plate than a human being can possibly handle.

And he handles it.

And we want to talk about how he does that.

But the other thing that he has done, which I learned from every single day, is he leans in to communities that he participates in, like in our, my universe, our guru media hub community.

He is in there commenting, participating, our webinars, our events, and, and he has built a network from this participation and he's elevated his career.

He's met all these people because he leans in to his human side and it makes everybody want to connect with him and we want to tap into his playbook, what he's doing.

So.

Jeremy, it is an honor to have you here, man.

What is up, man?

Hey, where was the theme music?

I didn't hear any theme music.

We layer that in afterwards.

You can get all excited.

Very fancy around here.

Can we start over?

Yeah, you're.

You're crushing it already.

So, by the way, since everyone's hearing your voice and like, wait a minute, where's this dude from?

Oh, here it comes.

So are you right now in the woods?

Like, where are you?

Yeah, I'm not far from it.

I'm originally from a tiny town.

Like I think my graduating class was 50 maybe in, in western Tennessee.

And my wife and I moved up here to Murray, Kentucky and we've, we've been here ever since.

So I'm kind of, I guess more a Kentuckian than I am a Tennessee.

And now.

And of course most people will be like, what's the difference?

And yes, exactly.

You didn't marry like your cousin.

Though, or anything like that, right?

No, but I think that's still legal in Kentucky.

I think Connecticut just passed the law.

But, no, we.

We actually.

We grew up maybe 10 minutes apart.

Didn't know each other until we were.

We were 17 and.

Or she was 17, and we've been together ever since, so.

You know, I'm mid-40s now, so you can imagine how long.

How long this journey has been, dude.

I have a question, though.

In high school or whatever, if you're graduating class, like, 50 people, so let's call it 25 guys, 25 girls, whatever.

And so, like, did you just burn through, like, any available options within, like, the first.

Like, what do you do with that?

Like, who are you taking a prom?

You have no choice.

Like.

Like, what happens in a situation like that, man?

I was a. I don't.

I was a jock, but I was also kind of a nerdy jock, so, you know, you just take what you can get.

I don't know.

I don't know what to say.

I mean, yeah, I don't even remember that part of my life, so.

And.

And you're gonna try to get me in trouble with my wife here?

No.

No, I'm not doing that.

By the way, forever ago, you call yourself a jock.

Of course you made the sports teams, because who else would be on the team?

You accomplished nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's.

That's true.

Yeah.

Before we get into community and all this stuff, I want to understand something, because every time I check you out, you're doing a lot of stuff and you don't really complain about it.

Whatever.

How do you handle having 45 different hats?

Do you just go into the day saying, I got this.

No problem?

I think you have to.

In some ways, you.

You have to approach every situation uniquely, I think.

But at the same time, you're there to do a job and you're there to provide.

In my opinion, you're there to provide something positive to the company, whether that could be internally or externally.

And.

And yet it just seems like every stop that I've been at.

I do wear a lot of hats, but at the same time, I never.

Up until probably recently, I've never really turned them down.

And you.

You sort of need to.

You know, I was at a.

A seminar, actually, last night with Evie Pump.

I gotta get her last name right.

AV Pomporis.

And she mentioned cognitive load.

And I'm sort of at a point in my life where I am thinking a lot more about how much more can I take on, how much more should I take on, and I'm at that point where, you know, my cognitive load is.

Is.

It's a lot.

And at the same time, though, there's that constant pull of is it still the best thing for the company or for the whatever that I'm the one leading this charge or doing this?

And the struggle for me, and I think for probably a lot of people that are in similar roles, is it's very difficult to let go of that.

And you want to be all things to all people, even though you might be saying externally you can't be all things to all people.

But, you know, maybe call it ego, call it pride, whatever it might be, it's very, very difficult to give that up.

And thankfully, like I said, I'm a point in my life personally, and an age where, you know, your body starts to tell you, you.

You're not invincible.

You're not.

You can't be all things to all people.

And you know what?

It's freeing to have the feeling or have the realization that there's always someone out there that's smarter, faster, cheaper.

That's a huge one right now.

And there's always someone out there who, let's just face it, probably has a little more drive than you, and that doesn't make you less than.

That's just the way of the world.

And if you're training your staff properly, the people that are under you, hopefully someone in your orbit is that person, because otherwise you're not doing your job right as a leader either.

And, you know, that I. I've had to realize that.

That there's.

There's definitely smarter, faster, better people out there, and I just need to, you know, dig my heels in and do what I can do with the space that I'm given with in the time that I'm given.

Yeah, and I love that.

I think getting real with yourself is.

Is super important.

Knowing what you're good at, doubling down what you're good at, and.

And then finding out the people around you that can do the stuff that maybe that you're not the best at.

And also just the other thing that I'm always focused on is what is taking up a lot of my time.

That's garbage, right?

Sometimes, like the 80, 20 rule 80 of my time is spent on stuff that's actually useless.

So kind of auditing that, I think, is a big deal, but I want to pivot this thing.

The other big thing about Jeremy, first of all, he's probably one of the funniest dudes I've ever come across.

I mean, we're going to put his LinkedIn in the show.

Notes you got to follow.

I mean, legit, out of control, funny, random dude of all time.

But one of the things that you've done, the way that we got to know each other, the way that you got onto this podcast, for example, is because you started commenting on posts that I put out there.

And then with the events that my company put on, you would show up in the chat and you would then network with the people that spoke at our events or attended our events, whatever, and you became a huge part of, of our community and everything that we're doing.

And I think it's a playbook that a lot of people can lean into to really change their career.

Were you intentional about this?

Like, why did you all of a sudden be like, I'm going to be Jeremy and I'm going to put Jeremy front and center?

I don't know that it was intentional.

I think it was.

I think the stars aligned in a way which, that sounds extremely sort of over the top, but a lot of things happened in the last four or five years that really sort of to bring all this together.

And there's a, there's actually a quote that another connection, Christina Garnett said actually this morning and she said, if you want a village, be a villager.

And that one just floored me at 7:30 or whatever this morning because that's really, I think, what I'm trying to do on LinkedIn and in these events like you're talking about, and even in my, in my work, my actual work life, where it's not about being, as I said, greater than anybody else or being better than anybody else.

It's about, you know, being a part of that community.

And the more digitized we all become, whether we want to or not, the less that that community feeling exists.

And there's a lot of people that are struggling, whether they are in, you know, they've got job insecurity or they have no job right now currently, or they're just dealing with crippling imposter syndrome, which I deal with one or two times a week without question.

So for me, I just, I want to be evidence as much as I can that, you know, we're, we're really here just for a short amount of time.

Let's have some fun with it.

Let's, let's try to bring everybody together.

Let's have empathy, let's have respect and let's, let's provide an avenue where people can, can, can smile can, can laugh, can, can fail.

Because here's the thing, the thing about trying to be funny and, and I appreciate the comments, but gosh, I struggle with it so mightily.

The thing about that is, is it's kind of like sales.

And I'm not a salesperson.

I don't lead sales.

It's, it's, it's awful.

I, I hate it.

But the thing about comedy is you fail so many more times than you succeed.

And, and I'm, I, I'm terrible more times than I'm, than I'm really good.

And you know, it's kind of like.

I'll give you a good analogy.

So you had a spam eating contest.

Was that last year at Guru?

Yeah, yeah, that was last year.

So have you tried the Korean barbecue Spam?

Oh my gosh, it's.

Well, you're like from Western Kentucky.

I feel like that's what you guys eat like every Tuesday, Korean barbecue.

I mean, I don't know what the hell goes on with you and Spam.

I feel now if they had, if they had mutton flavored Spam, I would be.

Mutton.

Yeah, try it.

Let's.

We'll offline about mutton later.

I'm having mutton tomorrow, actually.

But anyway, what was I saying?

Oh, yeah, Spam.

So it's like spam.

Spam's got a lot of varieties, right?

Some of them are total trash.

Yes, the original is fine, turkey's fine.

Grand barbecue, highly recommended, as I said.

But like, like brands, I mean, what we don't see a lot of times with brands even as hyper aware as we all are of everyone's mistakes and failures.

Cracker Barrel, you know, comes to mind, which don't get me started on that.

I mean, I hold Cracker Barrel dearly.

I will, I will fight somebody about that, that situation.

But anyway, what we, we still don't see all the things that don't make it to the decision board, you know, what we see are the, are the failure failures that get past the finish line.

But what about all the things that fail before you even get there?

And I think for a lot of folks, particularly on LinkedIn and Guru Conference and Delivered and all of the things that, you know, I participate in with you and your team, there's a lot of people out there that, because they have so many failures, and I'm air quoting for the folks that are just listening because they have so many failures before you even get to that visible thing, right, the thing that the, that the, the world has to see or that at least your decision makers in your company has to see, I want them to understand that's totally normal and that's totally fine.

I mean, I've got a blog post that I'm pushing out, I guess today at some point and two or three times.

I mean, I've just rewritten and rewritten and it should be table stakes for me.

The content is so like basic for utilities in this case.

And, you know, even somebody like me that's been doing this for 15, 20 years, writing and storytelling and whatever, it's constant and it's.

And so this, this, I feel like this gives us a great opportunity, people that of your stature and people on the other end of the spectrum like me that don't have that type of stature, to really bridge that gap with folks and say, hey, we're 100% all in this together, every single one of us.

Whether you've been doing this for 30 years, whether you're making X number of dollars or you're not making anything because you've been laid off, we're all in this together.

And I don't know if that rambling answer answers your question.

I'm still thinking about the, the mutton Spam that doesn't exist.

But.

Well, I'll tell you, it, it does.

It means a lot.

And, and, and we're all on the same, you know, level.

I think anybody that thinks that they're doing better or this, that whatever, they're, they're clowns.

And I don't even want to, I don't even want to know from them.

And I learn from you every day because you are very real.

You are willing to be yourself and show up as yourself.

And I will tell you every single day, I struggle with trying to be me.

I also struggle.

I mean, I've been in my agency business for 27 years and I will tell you every single week I feel imposter syndrome, that I suck at my job, that this is the end.

I don't know what I'm doing.

And for anybody out there that thinks that somebody that you think is doing so great, all this stuff that they're not, whatever, I freak out every day.

Ask my wife every single day.

I'm the most annoying person on earth.

So you being so willing to kind of just be out there and be yourself, other than the fact you have some weird things that you're into.

So I.

Let's get into judging you for a.

Minute real, real quick before you start to hammer me.

It, it's, it's also not a aha moment either.

I don't, I don't believe that if people are looking for this aha moment where it's like they're suddenly no longer dealing with this negative thought or this weight on their shoulders or whatever the case may be, I don't think that exists.

Like for me personally, I had a series of failures and trials that sort of got me this.

I mean, when I was a VP at a finance or sorry, before that I was a VP at a book company that we had some malfeasance at the upper echelons and the whole thing went to crap.

I mean, we had to lay off 100 and something people.

Personally, I had to sit in that room and tell each of them, hey, it's not your fault.

We've had some weird stuff happen at the top and there's things missing that shouldn't be there and blah, blah, blah, you can look it up, it's going to be on TV at some point.

And then shortly thereafter that a few years later, you know, I took a job outside of my comfort zone and I didn't do fantastic at it.

And it was the first time really that I, you know, started to really question my decisions about my career because I started out wanting to be a teacher and I did teach for about three years and it didn't pay enough.

I'm just being honest with you, I didn't pay anything.

And that's a, that's, that's terrible.

But, but then when my wife got sick a few years back and perfectly healthy now, as far as we know, but when she got leukemia, suddenly it was like, then suddenly that was like the final thing.

There was a series of things that were just chipping away at that ego a little bit.

Chipping away at that, at that, that feeling of am I, am I doing enough?

Am I enough?

Really?

Yeah, am I enough?

Period.

And then when I had to be a caretaker and, and when I saw her be such a freaking fighter, like, yeah, in a way that I could never be.

And then to see us both sort of grow in that.

And then, then it was suddenly that moment where it was like, you know what?

Now that noise that I have in my, in my head, all of that, all of that, that sort of self pity in some ways, like I'm not good enough.

All that again, all that just, just distortion going in my brain on a regular basis about I, I, you know, I'm not making enough as this person or hey, this person just got promoted, I can do their job 30 times over.

And all this Negative stuff that truthfully told was in my brain.

All this is just, in some cases is this hatefulness that I.

That I was thinking.

All that finally just sort of washed away after those series of events.

And particularly when, you know, when the universe hit me right in the cojones a little bit and said, dude, you're not in control, so ride the wave, you know, and, and so that's.

I want people to realize that, you know, if you're in that position, you know, don't wait for this, you know, grand thing to happen.

You know, it's a.

It's a.

It's a stair step.

Yeah, you'll get there.

You'll definitely.

Yeah, I love that.

I mean, just waking up every morning coming from a place of gratitude for the stuff that is going well in your life, that's.

That's the way to start your day.

It's hard for me now to rip on you after that, after you sharing all that, but I'm not.

I'm gonna power through.

I'm gonna see if I could do that.

Okay, so.

So before we got recording here, Jeremy kind of scanned in his house and he showed me this other room because he's at home right now.

And he showed me this room that's filled easily, I don't know, 500 different Superman type of like nostalgia collectible items.

Have you seen the movie?

Have you seen.

No, I haven't seen the new movie and I'll tell you why.

It looks horrible.

And also, Superman is the worst superhero of all time.

And I really think that it's extremely weird.

The level of Superman items that you own.

What is your actual problem?

So I'm going to turn.

So I know you're waiting for me to do some bits and be jokey, but I'm going to turn it on.

So.

So I'm going to be real, real, real with you.

So.

Oh, I had a. I had a.

We'll just say a problematic childhood.

Had some, Some stuff go down.

And one of the constants when.

When we were moving as much as we were and dealing with.

What we were dealing with was was I had this Super Friends coloring book from.

It would have been from 76, I think, because it predates me, but I had it.

And I had this one figure which I'm looking for, but basically it's the old version of this guy right here.

This is the newest one that just came out right from 1984, I believe.

My wife bought me a new version a few years back, of course, but.

But those are the only Two constants, really, in my life.

And I'm not.

That's not really much of an exaggeration.

Besides my grandparents, those were the only two constants was that freaking chewed up coloring book and that.

That tiny little toy.

So Superman's always been this.

Again, this, this sort of.

This anchor for me.

And.

And despite what you say about the movie, the movie is all about hope and about positivity and about empathy.

And that's really the point in my life that I'm at.

So if I can sort of lean into that and be a nerd, dork, doofus, as you say, and, and really just.

Just kind of have that moment where it doesn't.

It doesn't matter.

All right?

Now, before we run out of time, I need to know this, because now I will absolutely.

This is the only clip we're going to use from this episode, I promise you.

What is non Superman movies?

Okay.

And no.

And no movie that a Superman character was in.

What are your top five superhero movies?

Oh, I thought you were going to go non superhero, because I've got a solid non superhero.

No, I want to know your superhero ones.

Oh, you want to go non superhero?

Fine.

Hit me with your.

Well, number one.

Number one is both.

It's the Dark Knight.

It's an amazing film.

That's an amazing.

And it's a film.

It's.

You know, it's actually a film.

I agree.

And then number two is Inception.

I want a Christopher Nolan kick.

Inception is.

Is amazing.

And then after that, I'm a real.

I love the Back to the future movies.

I'm such a dork.

But, you know, of course they're dated now because we're long past the future in those.

But.

But yeah, it's just.

It's just a guilty pleasure.

I've always loved those.

And those two have sort of a.

There's a reason behind.

Behind those as well.

But yeah, those are my top three.

I don't know that I can give you.

So let me ask you a question about.

We've lost every listener.

Okay.

Would you agree, though, Back to the Future 3, the Western theme was terrible.

And would you also agree that Superman, the old series where it had Richard Prior, that movie was terrible.

And then the one where they had the guy from the sun was terrible.

Do you agree on all of that?

From the sun.

I can't even right now.

He wasn't from the sun.

You're Talking about Superman 4 quest for peace, by the way.

Yeah, no, the.

I'll be again, totally transparent here.

The original Christopher Reed movies.

Despite the the replica newspaper I have behind me, I don't love them.

I really don't.

Not the first one.

What are you talking about?

I don't think they age well at all.

I think they're way too hokey.

And if there's any Superman fans listening, they're gonna probably roast me later.

But they should.

But yeah.

No, Back to the Future 3 was epic.

That ending, that open ending with the train.

I mean, come on.

Terrible.

Mary Steam version.

She was amazing.

No, Ted Danson's wife.

That's also great.

That's a really good thing.

That's a great show, by the way.

Ted Danson show.

What the hell is it called?

The next season's coming out on Netflix, like in November.

Have you listened to his podcast, though?

Yeah, it's not bad.

It's not bad.

Not bad.

Well, aren't we fancy.

Well, speaking.

Not bad.

You're not bad, Jeremy.

We're gonna put it in the show notes.

We're gonna put your LinkedIn in there.

What should everyone do to get involved with your world or do.

Are you too important?

You don't want anybody kind of connecting with you?

No, absolutely.

LinkedIn is really the only thing that I spend any time on, so I'm the only Jeremy buyers on there that I know of.

So.

J E R E M Y B Y A R S. Not with an E because we were illiterate when we came over from Scotland.

Yeah.

And just, you know, if you're in the utility industry, I'd love to chat, of course, but definitely find me on LinkedIn.

Hey, and despite what Daniel Murray says, Jay, you're not.

You're not too bad.

I mean, you're a pretty good dude.

I'll text him right after this.

You're awesome.

I can't thank you enough for just being the absolute most incredible member of the Guru Media Hub community.

You're a legend.

Thanks for doing this and we'll check you soon.

All right, man, take care.

You did it.

You made it to the end.

But wait, the party is not over.

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