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Connect with Joe
https://sessionize.com/joe-perez
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwperez/

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https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

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Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] I have to be amazed every day that I can get up and highlight and share somebody amazing. And today, we have Joe. You're a pirate already and welcome back. Thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit of #inspiration, #motivation, and maybe get some people to take some action on something. How you been?

Joe Perez: [00:00:33] I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right, Russ. Thanks so much for asking and thank you for inviting me to be on your show again, sir. I count it as a real joy and privilege to share the stage with you, even if it's virtual.

Russ Johns: [00:00:44] Once a pirate, always a pirate. So welcome to the party. Anything you can do to help spread the word and a little bit of kindness around the world. Come aboard and help us out and make sure that you're here. So last time, you've been doing a lot of different things around and you're actually, it sounds like you're getting back into the live speaking environment. You've been doing a lot of virtual speaking and you share a lot of information with a lot of people. So for those that don't know you, we know you at the #PirateBroadcast™, maybe you could give us a snapshot about what your focus is, what you'd like to speak on. And then I want to talk a little bit about #motivation.

Joe Perez: [00:01:28] Sure. Absolutely Russ anything for a guy that allows me to be a pirate without having to walk the plank matey, right? Yes, indeed. The most popular topics would I speak on, one of them has to do with actionable data, essentially challenging people to read. But the way they do their reporting about data, anybody can make a pretty bar graph, but does it help you to make a decision, answer a question or solve a problem? If you can't do that, then you're wasting your time. So in that particular presentation, I call it the beauty and brains of actionable data. Since indeed our data is actionable only when it is able to balance art and science. Art, being the beauty and science being the brains because that's exactly what it is and I guide people in best practices in getting from their concept, the idea that they've got about reporting and the reality, what is it going to look like by the time they're finished. What kind of color schemes they should use? How the data needs to be presented accurately. How there should be transparency in in the data reporting. That sort of thing. I enjoy talking about that. That is by far the most popular topic. The other one is more of a motivational topic. It's called facilitating innovation in a post COVID-19 world. In that topic I once again, I like to challenge people rather than being satisfied with the status quo. I challenged them to break out of their comfort zone, go the extra mile and simply blow away the status quo. Mediocrity breeds stagnation and stagnation leads to death, in my opinion. I believe that if I'm not innovating, I'm stagnating, and it's, again, it's a challenge too, so that people will adopt a more innovative mindset, especially in the light of all the changes that have come about in our society due to COVID-19. All the pivoting that a lot of businesses have had to do to, to again, rethink their strategy and refocus their attention and so forth. Whether it's in a business, whether it's in a programming strategy, whether it's in your own personal life, that type of challenge to be aware of changes that have come about to meet them head on to again, refuse to be satisfied with standing still and move over rather than sitting back and letting things happen. Be the kind of person that makes things right. So I guide them through what I call a three pronged approach in achieving that delicate balance and being able to move forward. I guess being able to tell the difference between the leading edge and the bleeding edge, being able to face those things head on and not be defined by them, but rather rise above them and say, I will not be an antagonist to change. I will be a catalyst for change. And what are the principles involved in getting you to that point? That's what that particular topic is all about. There were other topics, other things I talked about, but those are the most popular.

Russ Johns: [00:04:41] I want to go back to the data because so many times we have this idea that, intuition is a great thing, follow your intuition. However, there are times also, especially with social media, especially online where the data tells us a different story. And you're, depending on what your goals are, data can absolutely provide you the most benefit and the feedback that you need. And also maybe motivate you to make some changes in some real life decisions, because I know, with this show and 400 plus episodes, I've evolved. And, I don't necessarily look at all of the data and my goal isn't necessarily to have millions of followers. I just want to make sure that I'm continuing to grow, continuing to show up and be consistent. To highlight people like yourself. And I know that if I dug into the data even more, I could probably unlock a few other little nuances that I could adjust along the way. And so how does one have to think about producing data, gathering data and making it makes sense?

Joe Perez: [00:05:56] Absolutely. That's an excellent point that you bring up Russ because, while people  that have the business savvy and know what they're doing, they're there, they know their business, they know their product line, they know their production sequence. They know what it is that they're doing, their emphasis, their mission, vision, and goals, and so forth. They may not think of those. Pieces of information as data, but that's exactly what it is. It's data, they've got a good business savvy, they've got a good, as you said, the intuition, they want to go with their gut. But that gut, that intuition, that savvy needs to be informed. And it's informed by these pieces of information that I mentioned and that you have mentioned, and yeah you have a general idea. From, the 10,000 foot level, right? An overall picture, which is great for managing your strategy. But it's also important, not not just to be so caught up on the strategic end of things, that you forget, the tactical end of things. And that's where getting into specific data points, digging into those details. We'll give you the insight that you need to be able to tease out the nuances, tease out the things. Okay. Yeah. If I tweak this here, if I change that there, then it's going to improve my bottom line. It's going to increase my level of satisfaction among my customers and that sort of thing. Part of it is learning to be learning to balance the specific and the general. The general gives you the overall view. The specific allows you to dig into the details and make tweaks along the way. I see it as again, not only a blending of the general and the statistic, but all or specific. I see it also as a blending of strategic thinking with tactical thinking.

Russ Johns: [00:07:46] I love that.  And I have tools where I gather data. And as long as the trend is moving up and the right, I feel pretty comfortable. It doesn't have to be hockey stick acceleration, we all want this idea of viral and I love the statement that we  overestimate how much we can get done in a day. And we underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year.

Joe Perez: [00:08:10] That's a good way of doing it.

Russ Johns: [00:08:11] Yep. And so we just have to stick to our process, improve it incremental. Become better than we were yesterday. And to me, that motivates me to get up every day and do the show and groove. It's this idea that we can accomplish something together. And, people like yourself that are doing great work out there. Speaking about it, teaching about it, sharing information. That's going to be valuable to the community. I just think it's an important mission and I just continue to pursue it.

Joe Perez: [00:08:41] Well, it is.  Cause you see a need and you know that you have the means to supply that need. And as you focus on those two aspects,  the need of the person on the other end, and the fact that you have what it takes to meet that need transaction occurs. It's the same way with knowledge. If you're an educator, you have the knowledge and your skills. Your pupil, your audience, your whatever, they're the ones that have the need to receive the knowledge. So you're communicating that to them in a way that is visually compelling, in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, in a way that touches on all those pain points that they might have that speaks to the need, that speaks to the gap. And you're filling in that gap, whether you're talking about selling cars or talking about whatever, whatever it happens to be. That's where the transaction takes place. The exchange of knowledge, the exchange of goods and services, the exchange of ideas, and  you come out of it smelling like a rose, because of course you met that need and then the individual on the other side, whose need has been satisfied, they're going to talk about it, which tends to snowball as you  increase in your popularity and viralness. Whatever the word is for that.

Russ Johns: [00:10:01] Viralocity. I've got Pirate viralocity.

Joe Perez: [00:10:05] Right? Exactly. Exactly. And then that motivates you to do an even better job. You're doing it with passion and you're going to communicate that passion. You're going to ignite that passion in the minds and hearts of the people that are on the other side of that stage. The other side of that screen, the other side of that, whatever the case might be. Whether you're doing it virtually in your show or my case, if I'm doing it virtually in a conference, or if I'm doing it in person, and that's the deal, cause  in person, you get that body chemistry, you get the the nuances, the inflections the facial expressions. And you can say, I want to be able to look into the eyes of my audience and see the lights come on. That's what gets my motor going when I know that I've touched a nerve somewhere, that something that I have said. Again, ignites some spark of thought or some spark of innovation within the individual on the other side of that room. And of course that's a bit more challenging to gauge when you're in a virtual environment, especially if you can't even see their faces, with you and me, it's just two of us, we're just here, if it's maybe a half a dozen or so then you got the Brady bunch squares going there. Okay. So at least if you can see their faces you can gauge some sort of reaction. But that's the whole point is that you want to be able to evoke some kind of response, hopefully a positive one, to indicate that you have indeed met that need, you've addressed that concern. You've solved that problem. You have answered that question, whatever the case might be.

Russ Johns: [00:11:34] I love that because every single time you show up, you have a choice. You can either show up in a positive way or you can show up in a negative way. And for me, I like to show up in a positive way. And that doesn't mean that all my days are perfect, all my days are ideal. It just means that I'm going to choose to show up in a way that produces a positive outcome for the people around me. I don't want to be miserable to be around. I want to give a shout out to Elize. Good morning, Russ, Joe, and all the pirates. Thank you so much. She's in from South Africa, she shows up. I just love that she's here every day. Appreciate you. Wendy, another long-time pirate. Good morning, pirates, Joe. Your energy is terrific for the pirate ship. Ahoy! Thank you so much. And also she says, I always say, where there is a need, there is a seed.

Joe Perez: [00:12:32] Oh, that's an awesome way of looking at it. Thank you, Wendy.

Russ Johns: [00:12:34] Absolutely. One of the original pirates on board as well.  Sheri Lally. Good morning, Russ and Joe pirate crew. Thank you so much for being here. Love you.

Joe Perez: [00:12:45] I like what Wendy said about where there's a need, there's a seed. Exactly. The need is there. The need is there. And it gives you as a speaker, in my case, a speaker in your case, as a podcast host and purveyor of knowledge, whatever, it gives me the opportunity to plant another seed in the person who's wanting to listen. There's some germ of truth if you will in what I've said and that seed has the opportunity to germinate and grow so that the knowledge can increase.  The person has a need and it gives me the opportunity to plant another seed of knowledge to I guess if you're sowing acts of kindness, even taking it out of the speaking, putting it into the practical realm. Someone else has a need, they have a need for encouragement. So what do you do? Do you go on and on about yourself or are you going to try to encourage that other person and place a seed of encouragement within them that can blossom into some positive thing that's going to improve their day?

Russ Johns: [00:13:45] I can't make you do anything. And hopefully I can inspire you to take action to do something.

Joe Perez: [00:13:52] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Each person's got to make their own choice. My job, if I'm speaking or if I'm just wanting to be an encourager of others, is just to go ahead and plant that seed, be that encouragement and perhaps some spark of #inspiration will indeed motivate that other person to take action, to make a decision, to try to improve upon their situation, rather than my spreading my negative vile guilt and feeling sorry for myself and spreading that around. That's not going to do anybody any good.

Russ Johns: [00:14:28] Don't bring pity to the party.

Joe Perez: [00:14:30] Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more, absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:14:34] It's interesting that IT and technology and AI and all we're talking about all of this data. And a lot of things are coming out, with data science and really diving into what the data means and there's volumes and volumes of information. And a lot of people don't necessarily have the inclination, interest or time to deal with this. And so how do we go about managing all of this information? Is there any strategies that you've developed or you think about, or aware of that we need to think about?

Joe Perez: [00:15:09] Well from a high level if the information is there, people need to be made aware of its importance. Okay. If a business leader doesn't see the need, doesn't see the importance, it has not been related to how it's going to improve his or her bottom line, they're going to leave it alone. Okay. As a good data steward or as a good business intelligence specialist or whatever your role happens to be in the company, is to educate that person. Get them to see that they've got some skin in this game. Get them to see that it will affect her bottom line. If she doesn't get up and do something about it, her business is not going to increase. Get people to see that it is in their best interest to take action on what's going on. Paint a picture with it, make a story out of it. Don't just present. If all you see  is a spreadsheet full of rows and columns of numbers, you're going to go cross-eyed after a little while. And that's all you're going to see is just a mass of numbers, unintelligible uninteresting. But if you're able to take those numbers, express them visually in a way that compels them in a way that either paints a picture or tells a story, okay, then that's going to peak their interest that they see. What is the result? How does it affect me? What action must I take in order to avoid the bad outcome or what action must I take to ensure the good outcome? It's one or the other. You either got to ensure the good or avoid the bad. And that's what you got to say. You're telling a story and we respond as human beings, ever since we were little kids. Everybody loves a story, right? You've got a beginning, a middle and an end, right? You got a protagonist and antagonist, you have a conflict that has to be resolved that ultimately does get resolved by the end of the story. That's the whole idea of the plot in the story. You have a hero, who's doing great and you have the villain who is off to foil the hero in all, whatever. And as you weave, a a good storyteller knows how to weave all those elements  in an exciting manner, in a passionate manner that draws in the interest of the person who's listening to the story. If a data storyteller, we'll say it that way, wants to achieve the same result, they're going to have to look at it in the same way and find creative ways to tell that story, to paint that picture, rather than just showing up with a bunch of rows and columns. You're not going to get anywhere.

Russ Johns: [00:17:47] So we have a bunch of storytelling accountants out here.

Joe Perez: [00:17:51] Hey, why not? That's right. Tell a story. A story, paint a picture. Do those two things and you will peak the interest.

Russ Johns: [00:17:59] Awesome. Awesome. Wendy has a story right now. She goes, I once heard about a speaker who held up an apple in front of a large audience and asked how many orchards are in this apple? Audience members shouted out, you mixed that up. You meant how many apples are in the orchard. He shook his head and broke the apple open, revealing five seeds. He held that up to the audience and said, how many orchards can these five seeds start? We limit ourselves by not seeing the long-term opportunity for planting the seeds that is education. I would argue that #inspiration and value. If you add more value to more people, more often, you'll always be able to plant more seeds.

Joe Perez: [00:18:49] Absolutely. And I'm just one person. If I can be a motivator, if all I'm going to do is just state what I know, okay, I've succeeded in nothing more than just inspiring myself.

Russ Johns: [00:19:03] Sheri Lally says, what's in it for me is a great motivator.

Joe Perez: [00:19:07] Yeah. See how the other person can benefit. Not what's good for me, but what's good for the other person that I'm speaking to?

Russ Johns: [00:19:13] What's the value that I can add to this conversation?

Joe Perez: [00:19:17] Absolutely. Absolutely. And see what that does is that once the seed is planted in all these other people, and once that passion for the information, for the knowledge, for the topic that you're talking about is ignited in each one of them, then each one of them becomes a little spark at whatever that will blossom as well. Or a seed, if you will,  I'm mixing my metaphors here, but whatever.

Russ Johns: [00:19:41] This is the best place to mix metaphors. You're in a safe zone.

Joe Perez: [00:19:46] Thank you. I appreciate that. Then yeah, that's going to bring more growth. Either as I like to say, if I give you a fish, you'll eat today. If I show you how to fish, you can eat for a lifetime and show others how to fish...unless you don't like fish.  Then that metaphor messes up, too, but whatever. The point is, rather than information, it's all about #inspiration, it's all about igniting others to want to do the same.

Russ Johns: [00:20:11] I absolutely appreciate that. Jorge, yes, today's connection is better. I was  out yesterday and I was mobile and my cell service was terrible.

Joe Perez: [00:20:23] Oh no, can you hear me now?

Russ Johns: [00:20:27] Howard Kaufman. The man. Thank you so much. Great points on all types of input being forms of data, not just numbers.  Absolutely positively true. And Howard, you always add value. That's a good data point to follow. I think at least in my philosophy, that's a good data point.

Joe Perez: [00:20:45] Sure, absolutely. What's that they say?

Russ Johns: [00:20:49] #smilesarefree.

Joe Perez: [00:20:52] I got it. Yeah. It was out of focus. I love it. I love it. #smilesarefree kindness is king. Yes, that's exactly.

Russ Johns: [00:21:00] So what's the next adventure? You got some speaking engagements coming up. Where's life going to take you?

Joe Perez: [00:21:06] Oh man. I am so looking forward to the ISA exchange in New Orleans. That's going to be the end of August. I'll be talking about the the popular topic facilitating innovation in a post COVID 19 world that I talked about a minute ago. They asked me to speak on that. They actually wanted me to bring two topics and I had to decide, so that's a pretty nice problem to have. But  I'm really excited. It's the first in-person conference since I spoke at the convey UX conference in March of 2020 in Seattle, and that was like right before the pandemic hit. The first two, whatever it was the first two cases in the U S who were hospitalized. Of all places in the world, it was in Seattle, not 10 miles from where I was at that conference and oh my goodness. So it was perfect timing, had it been like a week later or two weeks later, I wouldn't have been able to go. But that was a major a major bucket.... what's the word I'm looking for? The bucket?

Russ Johns: [00:22:01] Bucket list?

Joe Perez: [00:22:02] Bucket list, not kicked the bucket. Yeah. I'm glad I didn't kick the bucket. No, sir, no, sir. I'm not going to do that. But checking off, going to the west coast. And going up on the space needle, major bucket list things that I got to check off.  Now the next bucket list item in getting back to in-person conferences is getting to go back to New Orleans with my wife for the first time since we had our honeymoon there. Yeah, it's going to be great. I'm really excited about this opportunity.

Russ Johns: [00:22:28] Fantastic. I love it. There's so many things that we have to look forward to, and it seems like there's a real pent-up demand to start getting back at it. In-person events, making connections and here in Arizona,  there's a lot of people still wearing masks so everybody's taking precautions, of course. At the same time, there's a lot of activity going on. And so hopefully we'll be able to start meeting, the phone's ringing a little bit more for you and the speakers are speaking. Events are coming up. There's a lot of speakers that their business kind of slowed down considerably in the last 18 months. So I'm I'm happy to see you getting some events booked and getting out there.

Joe Perez: [00:23:12] I appreciate that. Yeah. It's crazy.  For me, the only thing that's slowed down, of course not slow down, but totally went away was the in-person events. But virtually I just can't believe the way things have exploded. 26 last year. And 30, actually 37 as of last night. I got another invitation. 37 this year. I don't know where they're all coming from.  Who do they think I am, Russ Johns? Come on. Where's this coming from? I'm just absolutely amazed and you know what I mean, speakers that like to be in person, and I understand that, turn them down and stuff and say, nah, if I go on this virtual thing, it's going to water down my, I don't think so. I think in my case, by the grace of God it's provided the opportunity to expand my brand and people who wouldn't know me from Adam's house cat would would say, oh, who is this guy? Oh yeah, that's who he is. And for whatever reason, they must be gluttons for punishment, they think I did a great job. Either that, or I snowed them into thinking I'm halfway decent or whatever. I don't know. But somehow, because of these, it's given me a much larger audience, a much broader platform. There's no way that I could possibly have been it between last year and this year, no way I could be in 16 countries on every continent on this planet. And I'd have so much jet lag the bags under my eyes would be even worse than they are now. It's crazy or I'd lose my job that I'd be constantly taking off work and being away. I don't like to be away from my wife and my family either.

Russ Johns: [00:24:41] The data shows that  there still are opportunities to go virtual out there.

Joe Perez: [00:24:45] Oh, yes sir. That's right. They still are. They still are. And again, even though you miss that, in-person, still you, you can make an impact. You bring your A game, you give it everything you got, you still prepare the same level of intensity as though you were going to talk to somebody in person. They're giving up their time, the least you could do is lay it all out there, give 120%. Pretend each time you go on that camera will be the last time you ever talk to somebody about the thing that you love. The thing that you're passionate about, the thing that you want. So communicate. Approach it with that attitude, approach it with that level of intensity and passion and knowledge for your craft and knowledge of the people that you're talking to. And with the desire to meet that need, plant that seed and not have greed, whatever. I just made that up, then you're bound to be successful. You're bound to have people that are going to say, I'd like to hear that. Talk again.

Russ Johns: [00:25:42] Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Joe, and I just really appreciate the opportunity to have you in the pirate community. And I look forward to having you share this out and Inspire a few more people out there and you're in your day to day activities and just really appreciate it.

Joe Perez: [00:25:57] Thank you so much, Russ. It was my honor to be on your show and I do appreciate it very much and I wish you all the best as well, sir.

Russ Johns: [00:26:06] Absolutely. And you know why? Because  #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and we want you to #enjoyyourday. Till next time. We'll see you later.

Joe Perez: [00:26:21] Bye now.

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