TRP 205: How to Build Credibility with Jessica Yarbrough

[00:00:01] You're listening to the Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high-stakes headhunter, author and professional speaker, Scott Love. You're listening to the Rainmaking Podcast, and my name is Scott Love. Thank you for joining me on the show. How do you build credibility with your prospects?

[00:00:33] Well, we're going to answer that question and much more in our conversation with Jessica Yarbrough. Jessica is a business strategist and growth expert. She works with entrepreneurs and other professionals when they're ready to ditch the hustle and overwhelm and build a business that's scalable, sustainable, and profitable.

[00:00:50] There's some great ideas from Jessica today. I think you're going to get some surprising results that will make a difference immediately for you as it did with me as well. As always, this show is sponsored by Leopard Solutions, Legal Intelligence Suite of Products, FirmScape, and Leopard BI.

[00:01:07] Push ahead of the pack with the power of Leopard. One request I have for you, if you get good ideas and content from this show, I'd really appreciate it if you gave us a nice five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening.

[00:01:22] Now, here's my conversation with Jessica. Hey, this is Scott Love with the Rainmaking Podcast. Our guest today is Jessica Yarbrough, and our topic is how to build credibility. Jessica, thanks for joining us on the show today. Thank you for having me. Tell me about this.

[00:01:40] For those people that are in professional services, they need credibility. What do you think is the best thing that contributes to someone building a credible name within their career? Well, I think a lot of people forget that if you want to become an expert that you

[00:01:54] need to teach. Everybody wants to talk about their solution all the time, but are you actually teaching how—or are you positioning yourself as the expert in teaching how your solution actually works? Oh, wow. Don't buy for all the features. They want to know the how.

[00:02:09] And so a lot of people struggle with that communication issue around what exactly is their solution. So if you want to build credibility, start to teach. And you can do this in a number of ways. You can go on a podcast and teach.

[00:02:22] You can hit record on a video and teach. You can write an article, but begin to teach, and that will be a big shift in your credibility perception. Wow, that's interesting. I mean, it makes sense.

[00:02:32] I hear that, but that wouldn't have been the first thing I thought of if I always asked that question. So when you talk about how to teach, what have you seen that works well for people?

[00:02:41] What are some of the pitfalls they need to avoid if they say, this is a great idea. How do I get started on that? And first let me kind of start with the pitfalls question.

[00:02:49] If somebody says, I want to teach, what do you think are the big things that they need to avoid that can keep them from being successful in that regard? That's a great question. Avoiding the pitfalls is literally self-sabotaging and not doing it. So that's the number one thing.

[00:03:06] People tend to feel like they have to have everything perfect before they begin to teach. I transformed my business years ago when I simply hit livestream, hit that livestream button and started teaching. And one of the best ways that you can teach is with a whiteboard.

[00:03:19] So don't feel like you have to create the perfect PowerPoint in order to teach. You can teach by just talking. You can teach with a visual like a whiteboard and you can certainly teach by putting together some slides, but it's not necessary.

[00:03:36] If you look back over the years of me teaching, you will not find a single PowerPoint presentation probably out there for like eight years where I've taught on PowerPoint. So it's not necessary. It's really about getting out of your own way, just doing the thing and actually

[00:03:51] hitting record in teaching. So what I recommend doing is you don't need to have a fully written out script, but have a few bullet points of what you want to cover, have a topic and a few bullet points and hit that record button.

[00:04:03] The truth is Scott, it's going to not be great at first. Yeah, right. Your first videos that you put out or your first podcast or however the method that you choose to teach, it's not going to be very good when you look back in five years

[00:04:15] and see those videos and say, ah, that was awful. But it doesn't matter. Like put yourself out there, get out of your own way. You're going to get better as you practice and then you can optimize and get more fancy with your production over time. That's great.

[00:04:29] Experts teach and I think that's a missing piece. Yeah, experts teach. Wow, you're absolutely right. And I think about that with people in legal that I've come across. They're an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and they're teaching law and, you know, they're actually teaching their profession.

[00:04:44] And then other rain makers that I know they've spoken at conferences. They've written white papers. Yes. They've done that to kind of bring their material out there. So let me ask you this.

[00:04:53] I know some people always have a concern, well, if I share my ideas, are my clients really going to need me when I tell them what my ideas are? What do you think about that? Yeah. That's actually really common.

[00:05:05] I have a lot of my clients come to me and they're worried like, if I put that out there, somebody going to take my ideas, that's a big thing. Or will they need my help? Well, first of all, information is free. Somebody might take your stuff.

[00:05:17] That's a whole other conversation that we could have. But as far as client-simplementing, you know, the transformation is not in the information. It's in what you do with that information. So the information that you put out there is designed to educate, to show them that you

[00:05:32] are the expert. Number one, that I understand the problem that you have and I can articulate it clearly and concisely. And number two, that I've created a way out that's going to take you from this value of pain that you're in up to that mountain of potential.

[00:05:44] And it's going to save you years of frustration, time, loss of money, revenue, profitability, loss of talent, whatever problem that you're solving. And I can bring that to you in a clear and concise way.

[00:05:54] So you're giving them the how, but they can't do it on their own because when left to our own devices, we're going to revert back to old habits and not make change. Right? So you're going to need the strategy. You're going to need the handholding.

[00:06:07] You're going to need the coaching or the consulting, the accountability. You're going to need assessments, whatever it is that you include as part of your transformation, you know, the information alone is not going to do it. services have an 85% attrition rate.

[00:06:20] If everybody was crushing it with courses, by taking courses, we would all be very, very successful. But that's not the reality for most of the population. I liked what you said when you said that you showed them a way out, you've created a way out.

[00:06:33] What does that mean exactly? So one of the biggest issues that I find professional service providers struggle with is articulating their solution. And so, it's not that you're not good at what you do but you are

[00:06:46] able to communicate your value. And so being able to communicate your value first starts with understanding who is your ideal client and what are the pains that they're struggling with? What are their pains? Where do they want to go? And how do you build that bridge?

[00:07:00] Now one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make is they focus on pains that are not urgent, right? If you want someone to buy and to buy quickly and to pay you

[00:07:11] a lot of money, you need to focus on pains that are urgent. Not a small cut but a bleeding wound. Your solution is the tourniquet and you need to be able to show them through your words,

[00:07:22] through your teachings exactly how you can stop that pain and get them to where they want to go. Wow. I love the descriptive way you presented that because it gives me a visual and it's like,

[00:07:32] wow, I really need that solution. I need that. I mean, I would usually say the aspirin to the headache but I like what you did that this is a glaring problem. And if you don't,

[00:07:43] bad things, really bad things are going to happen. I like that. You talked about one of them is being a teacher, teaching, being an expert. Experts teach. What are some other ways besides

[00:07:54] that that we can establish credibility in our profession, in our niche? Huge way to do it is through social proof. There's the power of the proof. So you can stand in front of a room

[00:08:03] and be really confident and have a great solution and present yourself as the expert. And the more powerful way is to layer that with power of proof because it's not just saying, I know what I'm talking about. Listen to me. You're saying, I know what I'm talking about.

[00:08:17] Listen to me and these other people who I've helped. And so when you're first starting out, that can be a struggle because maybe you don't have traction yet and maybe you need to do

[00:08:26] some clients, some piloting, some programs and get some case studies. But one of the biggest providers make, service providers make is that they aren't getting those case studies. They're not collecting social proof. They're not measuring where the client is at when they come and where

[00:08:42] they're at when they finish and all that they did in between and creating those powerful case studies because the truth is the more people you help, the more we'll want your help, but you have to tell the world about it. You can't just keep those clients success

[00:08:55] stories secret. You have to share them with the world. And so what are some good ways to do that? You mentioned, I like what you said, case studies. Right? I mean, some people...

[00:09:05] Case studies are great. Yeah. So tell me about that. How would you define a case study and how do we put that together? Well, so there's a spectrum of social proof, right? I would say your weakest ones would be reviews or written testimonials. And why are they the

[00:09:18] weakest? It's because people can fake them. Linked recommendations are a little bit better because at least you can click through to that person's profile. You'll know they're real. But unfortunately, we live in a world where people do things like they manipulate stories.

[00:09:32] And so the most powerful proof that you can have is by video form where that person literally tells their story and they can see their emotions. They can see their facial expressions. They can

[00:09:43] hear their voice and there's literally a voice to the testimonial. And then what you can do is take that video testimonial. You can use that as one powerful piece of proof and you can expand that into an in-depth case study. And that's where you write about the entire

[00:09:58] journey of where they're at, what did you work on? Where did they start? Put it together and tie it to your solution and then use that to create more demand for your services. That's great. I'm actually getting ideas while you're talking about this. Okay,

[00:10:11] I'm going to call that guy. I'm going to talk about this and what do we do and how do that help him? And now he's bringing me in to talk to his other people there.

[00:10:18] I've already got the whole storyboard written in my head. So I would assume that it's almost like there's this arc, right? That you're trying to follow in building the case study. Is that right?

[00:10:28] Correct. You are building the arc and most importantly is you really want to tie it to again your solution, the first thing that we talked about. It's why when any client hires me, the first thing we do is look at their foundation, which is the pains,

[00:10:41] the who, the what, the how, the pains, the pathway, all of those different things because we've got to get that piece right so that you can communicate your value and then you pull that into your video testimonials, your marketing, your content on social,

[00:10:55] your podcasting, your case studies. You pull all of that together so that you have a congruent brand saying the same thing. I'm the expert who solves these kind of problems for this kind of person. Yeah, that's great. So tell me a story of somebody that you've worked with.

[00:11:10] You don't have to mention their name, of course, but what was their challenge before they started working with you? How did you coach them? What were some of the things that you saw,

[00:11:18] why we really got to work through this? What did they do? What do you think they did that really kind of moved things forward to where they are today? Yeah. I mean, I have a great client example. My client, Misha, she came to me and she was

[00:11:31] selling what I would call lower end packages. So $3,000, $10,000, $15,000 packages. Her background was a VP and C-suite. Like many of my clients that come to me and literally on my first call with her, I said, you can be selling six-figure packages to

[00:11:48] organizations. This is why people hire me. And of course, I work with established people that do have expertise. These are not brand new people. And together we found the pain. We shifted her to go after a higher caliber market and then month five of the program

[00:12:02] of working with me, she sold a $360,000 contract. The biggest of her life, which is a game changer level of contract. And so I've had many clients come to me like that, that have decade to two decades of experience working in their field, but they haven't quite figured out

[00:12:20] how to monetize that on the highest level. We find where is that challenge and the marketplace? How can we position them? And then we get them selling at a really high level, doing deep work and transformation with their clients.

[00:12:32] That's great. So it's like a formula that you follow pretty much, right? Absolutely. I do have my system that we do follow. Absolutely. That's great. So tell me about you. And then we help them build their own system.

[00:12:42] Okay, got it. So what happened in your life? When did you come to the point that, oh, this is what I've done. This is going to be my business. Tell me about that. Well, my background was in business. I built a startup company. I consulted in

[00:12:54] my early 20s. I walked away from it, had a whole Eat, Pray, Love journey of self-discovery, came back, started my consulting business backup probably 10 years ago. I was behind the scenes doing done for you marketing campaigns,

[00:13:07] bringing in money for clients. And it wasn't very fulfilling because I was the person behind the computer like making magic happen by pressing buttons. And that old adage, give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man a fish feed him for a lifetime,

[00:13:21] really came into my presence. And so I shifted into not only doing things for others, but teaching them how to build their businesses and how to own their value. And my business grew from there. And so that's what I do today is I primarily focus on B2B

[00:13:37] coaches and consultants who want to sell and scale ultra high value programs. That's great. So tell me about people that you've seen in your profession, where they're starting on this journey and they didn't get what they wanted.

[00:13:51] What do you think they did do that they shouldn't have done? What are the things they didn't do that they should have done to where they could have gone and achieved different things and achieve greater success? What do you think those areas are?

[00:14:02] I would say a big piece of it comes down to mindset. And I know people don't like to talk about mindset, but everything starts with mindset. Mindset and strategy go hand in hand. So number one thing that holds people back is an ability to make decisions fast.

[00:14:16] So people love to cling to the fence of uncertainty and no decision is a decision. So people just stay there and they don't take action and that holds them back and keeps them stuck for years. So number one would be like a mindset shift in the ability

[00:14:30] to make decisions fast. That's going to propel you forward. If not, it's going to hold you back. Number two is undercharging. Most of my clients that come to me again have been working for years.

[00:14:41] Some of them have not raised their prices in four, five, 10 years and they're vastly undercharging because one of three things. One, back to mindset. Some measure of imposter syndrome, I don't know enough. I'm not worthy enough. I can't charge this.

[00:14:54] Two, a lack of awareness of what the market is willing to pay. They have no idea. Companies have budgets this size for whatever it may be, strategy or leadership development.

[00:15:04] And then three, they lack the strategy of knowing how to do that. So no matter what I go to, it's always going to go hand in hand as a mindset and strategy or the root cause of

[00:15:12] all problems that hold people back from achieving much more success in their lives. That's great. Wow. How about that? So if you took all the people that you've worked with in a room, the people that worked it and they did really well. And if there was one thing

[00:15:26] they all had in common, what would that one thing be? I mean, I would say the number one thing is finally being able to step into their power and own their worth and do the scary thing.

[00:15:39] Because every single client has told me the number one thing they say when they sell their first really large package is I wish I would have done this sooner. I wish I would have been brave

[00:15:51] put this price out and not been afraid to lose this client because I could have charged double quadruple. Some of my clients have charged 10x or more their prices, but no one's going to volunteer to pay you more money. So the only person that's holding you back

[00:16:05] is you. There is no man holding you down. The only ceiling that exists is the one that you place on yourself. And so it takes oftentimes it takes someone who can shine that mirror and

[00:16:17] show you your potential, show your greatness and call you on your nonsense when you start to say, I can't do that and go into your pattern of fear and give you the strategy to get

[00:16:26] the thing done because once you sell it, you silence that inner critic. Because right now you have a frame of reference of what's possible in your mind. That's all you know. And once you sell it, you crush that level and you expand to another.

[00:16:40] Right? And so again, it's about creating that new reference point of what's possible and honestly like blowing your own mind on your potential because there's a part of you that deep down knows you can do it. You're just afraid or you're not sure how.

[00:16:53] Exactly right. And I like what you talked about with uncertainty. I've seen people that they're starting to close a deal and the deal may or may not close. And that uncertainty is so stressful, so they will sabotage that deal

[00:17:08] so they knew it wouldn't close. Now they know and the deal's not going to close. Yeah. Thank God. I can breathe a sigh of relief now I know what the future is. Because I sabotaged it so I didn't have to worry about the stress of,

[00:17:22] oh, it could close. It couldn't close. I've seen that. I've actually personally had to work through that before and I've also seen people that they have that self-limiting belief, I'm never going to be able to do this. And it's almost like you have to pretend,

[00:17:34] maybe not necessarily pretend, but you have to just do one and then reflect back on that, replay that, replay that experience when you're pitching your work at that next client meeting. Close your eyes, think of the time when somebody actually said yes. They said yes.

[00:17:50] And if you can do it once, you can do it over and over and over again. Those are things I've done. What do you think there's some kind of, let's call it a thought model? What do you think

[00:17:58] some mantras are or things people can tell themselves to really get them to overcome that hurdle of self-sabotage and that limiting belief? Well, I think it's having confidence with your pitch is a big part of it.

[00:18:11] If you can feel confident and you have your pitch down and you feel like you can clearly speak to that person's struggles and you have a way out and you're not stumbling over your words,

[00:18:21] you're not long-winded, it's clear and concise. That's number one. I feel like that confidence is that sales is nothing more than a transference of confidence. I'm certain that you are the person that can help me solve my problems. I'm willing to hand over this amount of money for

[00:18:34] you. Number two is get comfortable with being silent. As you were talking about some people, they can't stand, they need to know right away. If you just dropped a huge package onto someone,

[00:18:47] like be okay with being quiet and let them reflect, don't go into wheel and deal mode. And then another thing is you're going to have to get comfortable with uncertainty. The fact of the matter is that deal may not go through. So be unattached to it. I always

[00:19:01] tell my clients, I don't get emotionally enrolled in any prospect until they become a paying client. I'm here for you. I understand. I would pitch you unless you're a fit. I have strong boundaries

[00:19:15] and values around that. And so you're either in, you're either ready or you're not. And if you're not, I don't want you as a client because I don't want to pull you kicking and screaming through this process. We already know based on this conversation, Scott,

[00:19:30] there's going to be some inner work of the strategy and I'm going to make you do the hard things. So if you're not ready, like don't come. I don't want to drag you into this.

[00:19:36] You got to be ready. You got to move past your own fear of this is scary. It's an investment. Of course it is. Now do the thing. If you're ready, move forward. If not, let them go. Release

[00:19:47] them. Somebody better will come along. That's great, Jessica. So let me ask you this then if you could kind of summarize what you're talking about and put it in three action steps that people can take to really get started walking down this path. What would those three

[00:20:00] action steps be? Number one, find the pain, make sure it's urgent. Number two, get a clear solution. And number three, don't be afraid. Teach it. Hit live, press record, get on a podcast, show people you know what you're talking about. Experts teach. That's great. I love it. And

[00:20:18] when people make mistakes, that's not a bad thing, right? Fail forward. We all make mistakes. Go watch my YouTube video on all the mistakes I've made. It's great. I'll tell you all the lessons

[00:20:27] I learned last Friday. I was giving a, I was at a fifth grade class for career day and close to the end of the year had career day. I talked about a career in sales. What's it like to be

[00:20:37] in sales? And I asked them all, I said, how many of you like sports music or art? Everybody raises their hand. What's the one thing you do to get better practice? They knew that. And I talked about how making a bad decision is worse than making no decision.

[00:20:50] Because if you make a bad decision, at least you're walking forward and you get information on how to make adjustments. And it was, it was neat to see these kids, they get that. And wow, it's nice for professionals to get those lessons. And thank you for being here

[00:21:03] and sharing your lessons with us, Jessica. And then tell us about, can you be more specific about your offerings? Is there anything you'd like for our listeners to know about you that they don't already? And we'll certainly put any links that you give us on the show

[00:21:15] notes. Absolutely. Well, if you're a coach or consultant that I stuck, I'd say at around 200,000 to 700,000 or more, definitely reach out. You can go to jesciarba.com. And if you'd, if you don't already have a copy, go to jesciarba.com. Ford slash influence and grab my ladder of

[00:21:30] influence, which teaches you the four levels of influence, how to grow your authority and scale your business. And then I'm active on LinkedIn all the time. So hit me up on LinkedIn, send a connection request and let me know you heard me on this show.

[00:21:44] That's great, Jessica. Thank you for being here. I'm sure we'll have you back on here in the future. And for everybody else that's listening, make sure you go to the show notes. I'm going to put all those things that Jessica mentioned on there. So just go to wherever

[00:21:55] you're hearing your podcast, click there, get all of her information directly. Thanks again, Jessica. Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the Rain Making Podcast. For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit

[00:22:13] our website at attorneyssearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com.