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Heart And Luxury with Jeffrey Shaw · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let's go.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom: Well, hello, fabulous listeners.
• 0:38
  Tom: Today on the heart-led Business Show, we're going deep into the dazzling world of portrait photography with none other than Geoffrey Shaw.
• 0:47
  Tom: From humble beginnings to the halls of Harvard, Geoffrey has captured the essence of the elite and empowered the self employed.
• 0:55
  Tom: We'll explore how this heart-led entrepreneur built a portrait empire while celebrating the spirit of self employment.
• 1:02
  Tom: So buckle up for some insights, inspiration, and a little sprinkle of brilliance.
• 1:08
  Tom: Jeffrey, welcome to the show.
• 1:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: Hey Tom, thank you so much for having me on.
• 1:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's great to be here with you.
• 1:13
  Tom: That's so good.
• 1:14
  Tom: I'm, I'm so excited to talk to you about, because it's not, common that I have very creative people on the show, mostly health and wellness folks and things like that.
• 1:24
  Tom: So I really, I'm excited to get your take on what it is all about to be a heart-led business.
• 1:31
  Tom: So my first question though, is always what's your definition of a heart-led business?
• 1:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 1:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: You know, for me, my definition is that it's from where you're making your decisions.
• 1:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: Right?
• 1:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: To me, it's like to be whatever it is that you're led by, you're leading by what is your source by which you make your decisions.
• 1:51
  Jeffrey Shaw: I'll give you a kind of a practical example, which might make it easier to see.
• 1:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: So in my coaching work, I, the people I work with who are heart-led, purpose driven people type of business owners.
• 2:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's, that's who I coach to.
• 2:05
  Jeffrey Shaw: I attract.
• 2:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: one of the things I want to attract, but one of the things I point out to them is that we, I teach them an impact based business model versus an income based business model to help them get away from the practical message that we get in business.
• 2:21
  Jeffrey Shaw: That you should make all your decisions from income.
• 2:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: You should make your decisions based on where you're making your money.
• 2:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: If you are a heart-led business or you're in business to make an impact, that's the wrong business model because you will almost always be putting effort and action towards a part of your business or your entire business prior to it making money.
• 2:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: right If you're impact led, impact business or a heart-led business, you're almost always putting effort towards something that the money will follow.
• 2:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: So for example, if you desire to be a speaker, I can tell you you're going to, it's going to take you two, three years of a lot of effort to get any recognition.
• 2:59
  Jeffrey Shaw: a speaker long before you, the money equals the effort.
• 3:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: that to me is what it means to be an impact based business model where you're, you're making your decisions from the impact you want to make.
• 3:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: So similarly, I look at a heart-led business the same way that where are you making your decisions from?
• 3:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: Are you making your decisions from your heart?
• 3:18
  Jeffrey Shaw: It might defy practicality.
• 3:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: It might not make sense.
• 3:21
  Jeffrey Shaw: A traditional business coach might tell you that's stupid, but if you're making, you know, heart-led is to actually make your decisions from your heart.
• 3:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: And truly believe that decision will lead you to where you want to go, which if you're a heart-led business owner is likely to having and making an impact, helping people, supporting people, and bettering people's lives.
• 3:40
  Tom: Yeah, that's the, that's the first definition of, you know, impact versus income and having that type of business model.
• 3:48
  Tom: I like that a lot.
• 3:49
  Tom: That really helped.
• 3:51
  Tom: I think it's going to help a lot of people just really crystallize, like, what is the difference?
• 3:55
  Tom: And I love how you explain, you know, the impact.
• 3:59
  Tom: It will be a little bit of a struggle at first, but the benefits are going to outweigh that.
• 4:04
  Tom: One, one second.
• 4:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: If you're an impact basis, but there's a lag time between the effort and the reward.
• 4:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I, you know, I'm so glad you appreciate that because again, a little bit of my story, I've been self employed my entire life.
• 4:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: I've never had a traditional job.
• 4:18
  Jeffrey Shaw: So from the age of 14 and selling eggs door to door, by 20 years old, I was a professional photographer.
• 4:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: And by 23, I was a.
• 4:26
  Jeffrey Shaw: family photographer for the most wealthy families in the United States.
• 4:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I have literally, I've never received a paycheck from anyone other than myself.
• 4:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I've had to figure this, I've had to turn the conventional world upside down because we're in this world that tells you, make your decisions from income, make your decisions from what's practical.
• 4:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: And when you're a heart-led business, the whole world fields backwards to you.
• 4:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I realized that the detriment of that is not only The world you're living in, but it's also the amount of energy we exhaust.
• 4:56
  Jeffrey Shaw: Imagine living in a country where you don't speak the language and you're having to translate in your mind all the time.
• 5:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's what it feels like, I think, when you're a heart-led business living in a very conventional minded world, that you're
• 5:09
  Tom: Yeah.
• 5:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: constantly translating.
• 5:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I've done all the translations.
• 5:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's why, you know, that's how I coach today.
• 5:14
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's how I teach because that's like, I tell people I've done all the translations.
• 5:18
  Jeffrey Shaw: Don't exhaust yourself.
• 5:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: Let me help you.
• 5:20
  Jeffrey Shaw: And here's one of them.
• 5:21
  Jeffrey Shaw: Impact based decisions versus income based decisions.
• 5:24
  Tom: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Tom: You're basically a native speaker in Impact at that
• 5:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: when you've been
• 5:30
  Tom: point?
• 5:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: your whole life, man, you've been in the trenches and you've seen it all.
• 5:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: So,
• 5:35
  Tom: Yeah.
• 5:35
  Tom: I mean, I, I have had a corporate job before, but I'm definitely unemployable at this point in my, in my life, in my career.
• 5:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: and when you've never had a traditional job, that becomes the fantasy, right?
• 5:47
  Jeffrey Shaw: The, the grass is greener over there.
• 5:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, and on my lowest moments I've said, God, you know, maybe I should just get a corporate job.
• 5:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: It just looks like, you know, the security, the, you know, the, the, all the security comes with it, and it may, it looks like fun hanging out with other people and my son, who's always been, you know, a source of wisdom for you.
• 6:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: He is always, like I said, dad, you're completely unemployable.
• 6:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: He's 100 percent right.
• 6:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like I would, I would be a horrible employee.
• 6:11
  Tom: Yeah.
• 6:13
  Tom: Do you even have a, a resume or a CV at this point?
• 6:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: You know, and here's
• 6:17
  Tom: right?
• 6:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: know, look what's happening on LinkedIn, right?
• 6:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: I've had a LinkedIn account since day one, but LinkedIn was originally this world for online resumes, which I had no value in.
• 6:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was never looking for a job and I was never going to hire people for creative business from LinkedIn.
• 6:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: Look at it today.
• 6:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: LinkedIn is like the place.
• 6:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: For heart-led businesses.
• 6:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like it is a platform of personal brands now, which is why they've morphed.
• 6:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I've interviewed a lot of the LinkedIn executives on, on my show, my own podcast, and they flat out say like, they see this as the heart-led personal brands, this is the future of the world.
• 6:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: This is the future of the world they want to create.
• 6:56
  Jeffrey Shaw: So they're supporting personal stories, supporting authentic personalities, supporting heart-led individuals and businesses on their own platform.
• 7:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: But no, I've never had a resume, CV, you know, if you asked me five years ago what a CV was, I don't know if I knew.
• 7:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: I had to ask, actually, I can remember exactly.
• 7:14
  Jeffrey Shaw: It was in 2009.
• 7:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was doing my coach training and people kept talking about C suite.
• 7:18
  Jeffrey Shaw: I had to ask somebody what C suite meant.
• 7:21
  Jeffrey Shaw: I, that was not the
• 7:22
  Tom: Yes.
• 7:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: term familiar to me.
• 7:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's like, Oh, CEO, CFO, CEO.
• 7:26
  Jeffrey Shaw: Now, I didn't know what C suite meant, it wasn't my world.
• 7:30
  Tom: That's awesome.
• 7:31
  Tom: And that's great because no, no reason for that to, to know the corporate world at all.
• 7:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was the C-everything.
• 7:39
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 7:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 7:42
  Tom: So it's the room where you can overlook the whole factory and see you.
• 7:48
  Tom: So tell us a little bit about your business and what inspired you to have a heartled business in the first place?
• 7:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah, know, here's the thing, my own personal journey of this is that I may have been in business for over 40 years.
• 8:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, I can't say, so I went into business at 20, so do the math, I'm 60.
• 8:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: But I went into
• 8:09
  Tom: Right.
• 8:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: I know.
• 8:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: Lot's of cream, I look 30.
• 8:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: But I went into business at 20, with a very typical business mindset.
• 8:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: I went to photography school, got out of photography school, was going to start a business.
• 8:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: Not understanding anything other than what the world was around me, I, it was not a heart-led business.
• 8:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: It was just a business, right?
• 8:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: With a location and you know, a formula to establish your prices that I remember was given to me in photography school.
• 8:39
  Jeffrey Shaw: Your cost of goods times, you know, plus overhead times XYZ.
• 8:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I followed that formula so verbatim that the first time I showed my price list, I had a printed price list.
• 8:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: I showed it to the executive director of the photography school I went to when I went back to visit one day.
• 8:56
  Jeffrey Shaw: A price of an 8x10 was 48 dollars and 2 cents.
• 9:00
  Jeffrey Shaw: I didn't see how, I didn't even see in the price list how ridiculous that was until he pointed out.
• 9:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's like.
• 9:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: Two cents.
• 9:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: I'm like, well, I was given a formula and I thought at 20 years old, I'll give myself some grace.
• 9:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was 20.
• 9:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: I followed that formula verbatim.
• 9:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: And that's what it was.
• 9:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: So at 20 years old, I can't say I in any way was starting a business that was heart-led by 23.
• 9:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: After three years of struggling and realizing, okay, the business I built was never going to work.
• 9:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: I built a photography business at my hometown, which was in my hometown which was in the middle to lower middle class community.
• 9:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: And here I was trying to sell what would be considered high end photography because even 48 dollars and 2 cents for an eight by 10 it was expensive for that community.
• 9:45
  Jeffrey Shaw: All because they were used to going to Olin Mills and Sears for 9.
• 9:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: 99.
• 9:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: So even that was considered high and I realized I was barking up the wrong tree.
• 9:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like I'm trying to convince people the value of these high end photographs, gorgeous quality, passed down from generation to generation.
• 10:02
  Jeffrey Shaw: And after three years I was failing because it was clear that people didn't value what I valued and who's, you know, nobody's worrying about preserving the children's memories if they can't pay their mortgage that month.
• 10:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: So
• 10:16
  Tom: True.
• 10:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: After 3 years I have to reinvent myself and that's when I realized oh, I am, I am meant to serve an affluent clientele.
• 10:26
  Jeffrey Shaw: And when I say meant, I mean that sincerely.
• 10:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: I did the work.
• 10:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: I looked at my values.
• 10:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was like at a critical moment in my failing photography business.
• 10:34
  Jeffrey Shaw: I realized that I had a choice to make.
• 10:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: I could adapt not just my business, but I could compromise my values to match the market I was in, or I could own my values and find the people that appreciated that.
• 10:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I realized that people that would appreciate these ideas I had for quality, beautiful art like portraits, people that would have valued preserving for the future, you have to have discretionary income.
• 11:01
  Jeffrey Shaw: That relates to affluent people.
• 11:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I figured that out.
• 11:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: The problem was I grew up in this lower middle class community, small town in upstate New York.
• 11:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: I knew nothing about rich people.
• 11:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's when it became a heart-led business.
• 11:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's when to me it became a business where I wouldn't have called it heart-led, but what I put ahead of everything else was understanding the people I was going to serve.
• 11:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I, in a way, I was at an advantage because I didn't come from their world.
• 11:26
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I didn't, I didn't understand the world of rich people at all.
• 11:31
  Jeffrey Shaw: It became a heart-led business because I put who they were, how they behaved, their minds.
• 11:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: I wanted to know everything about what made rich people tick.
• 11:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I did the work.
• 11:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: I studied their behavior.
• 11:45
  Jeffrey Shaw: I went to high end stores in New York City and I studied their behavior.
• 11:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: I studied how stores were laid out, merchandised, styled, branded.
• 11:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I did it all without even an iota of judgment or assumption.
• 11:59
  Jeffrey Shaw: Thankfully.
• 12:00
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I would tell
• 12:01
  Tom: Yeah,
• 12:01
  Jeffrey Shaw: that's step number one.
• 12:02
  Jeffrey Shaw: I easily could have had a lot of judgments because I've heard all the stereotypes of rich people growing up, right?
• 12:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: Poor people hate rich people and they make fun of them and make all these stereotypes.
• 12:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: Thankfully, I think it made me curious.
• 12:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, is it true?
• 12:15
  Tom: This is a true, right?
• 12:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: None of it was true.
• 12:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: 40 years of serving this, you know, high net worth individuals, none of it was true.
• 12:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: But what made it heart-led was caring about who I was going to serve above all else, above even myself.
• 12:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: I wanted to know what made them tick, what they valued, what their decision process was, how they behaved, what was attractive to them.
• 12:39
  Jeffrey Shaw: So that's what made it become heart-led as a photographer.
• 12:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: We're talking, you know, 35 plus years ago, and that's still the way it is today.
• 12:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: Everything I do for myself, my clients.
• 12:51
  Jeffrey Shaw: From a stage as a speaker, the number one thing I am talking about is putting the people you serve first and leading with that heart.
• 13:01
  Tom: Yeah, I love that.
• 13:02
  Tom: And there's a couple things in there that I'd love to unpack a little bit more that Allowing your value, I'm going to paraphrase incorrectly, I think a little bit, but allowing your values to go to the level of the market, whether that's value up or value down.
• 13:18
  Tom: I love that.
• 13:19
  Tom: That is such an interesting concept.
• 13:21
  Tom: And I, and I can see that I've made that mistake in the past, making decisions based on a market that may or may not have been the right fit.
• 13:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 13:31
  Tom: I think so many businesses do that.
• 13:34
  Tom: How, how did, you know, come up with that idea, or what was the impetus around looking at it that way?
• 13:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 13:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: And honestly, you know, you're compromising more than your decisions, if you will.
• 13:47
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like to me, even at 23 years old, I felt like if I, if I compromise, if I lower my standards, if I lower even my prices that represent the quality and the standards and my mission, right?
• 14:01
  Jeffrey Shaw: I really felt like I was, it could have been the saddest moment of my life because I felt like I'd be giving myself up.
• 14:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like I'd be throwing myself under the bus to lower my standards, to match the market that I felt like I could fit into.
• 14:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: Not to mention in a practical sense that I've, again, also heart-led is for the other, but it's also being heart-led for yourself.
• 14:24
  Tom: Mm-hmm
• 14:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I have made every decision in my 40 year career from a lifestyle decision first.
• 14:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: How do I want to live?
• 14:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: And how do I build a business and lifestyle around that that matches how I wanted to live?
• 14:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: And what I knew even then, I was a worker, disciplined, but if I lowered my prices to match the market, I'd be working 10 times as hard, then 10 times harder than I needed to.
• 14:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: And that was a big decision factor for me.
• 14:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: So it was a gamble.
• 14:51
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I know at 23 years old, that's not a gamble, but I was married at 20.
• 14:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: So at 23 years old, I was already married, had an apartment.
• 14:57
  Jeffrey Shaw: I had expenses, you know, I had a life as well.
• 14:59
  Jeffrey Shaw: And, and probably the scariest thing of all, honestly, Tom, this is all I knew how to do.
• 15:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: I grew up in this lower middle class community.
• 15:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: College wasn't an option.
• 15:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like nobody could afford college.
• 15:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I.
• 15:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: I had a guidance counselor in high school that I don't think ever mentioned college.
• 15:14
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, you know, it just was like, you went to high school, you graduated, and actually it was, it was, the area was dominated by IBM.
• 15:20
  Jeffrey Shaw: I grew up where IBM started.
• 15:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: My father was one of the first 90 employees at IBM, if you can imagine that.
• 15:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, I grew up in this, you know, area where that's all people, that's all you knew is you went to school and then you went to, you went to IBM.
• 15:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, you know, for me, my camera, my talent was the only way out of this world.
• 15:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: So the sacrifice that was at stake was so big.
• 15:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: It was, I said, it was more than just compromising on your business decisions.
• 15:47
  Jeffrey Shaw: It was compromising on your life.
• 15:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I just refused to do it.
• 15:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: And that, more than anything, just ingrained in me.
• 15:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's like, well, there's something fundamental I share with so many of my coaching clients and people I teach is that you have to fundamentally believe there's a world of people out there waiting for you to show up no matter what you sell, no matter what your values are, no matter how quirky you might be.
• 16:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: I guarantee you there's a world of people out there somewhere waiting for you to show up.
• 16:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: Let's figure out where they are, what they need and how we speak to them so that they know that you're there for them.
• 16:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: Business 101.
• 16:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: But that's, to me, this is a heart-led business.
• 16:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: You're leading with believing there's a world of people out there waiting for you to show up.
• 16:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: Now do them the favor of being true to yourself and showing up for them.
• 16:36
  Tom: Absolutely.
• 16:36
  Tom: And with what, 8 billion people and 330 million people in the us There's definitely enough business to support the heart-led business when you do it the right way.
• 16:47
  Tom: And yeah.
• 16:48
  Tom: That's great.
• 16:49
  Tom: The other thing that you, you mentioned also is the research that you did for your market.
• 16:55
  Tom: That, that is absolutely brilliant, especially for a 23 year old.
• 16:58
  Tom: I mean, I don't know what I was thinking at 23.
• 17:01
  Tom: It was like I was working at Radio Shack, you know, selling semiconductor geodes or whatever, deodes.
• 17:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: How much
• 17:08
  Tom: exactly.
• 17:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: Shack is?
• 17:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: Where we
• 17:14
  Tom: The dinosaurs.
• 17:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: where we used to go buy CB's, right?
• 17:17
  Tom: Yeah.
• 17:17
  Tom: That was so much fun.
• 17:21
  Tom: But doing that research and in going to where your market hangs out, identifying what it is that they like, how they talk, how they act.
• 17:31
  Tom: That's, that's brilliant.
• 17:32
  Tom: And more businesses need to do that to really understand their market.
• 17:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: Hundred percent.
• 17:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: One of the things, you know, I spoke earlier about, you know, when you've lived in this world of figuring things out because you're self employed your whole life.
• 17:45
  Jeffrey Shaw: This is one of the things I figured out where.
• 17:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: I often refer I have an educational program called the Exceptional Business Academy.
• 17:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: And basically to summarize, the Exceptional Business Academy is, is where I take all my experience in the luxury space and the luxury marketing and what it takes to appeal to and satisfy the most uncompromising clients on the planet.
• 18:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: I take all that information and, and offer it to non luxury businesses, everyday business, and say, look, imagine this.
• 18:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: Imagine you had the inside secrets of what makes Cartier, Cartier, Tiffany, Tiffany.
• 18:20
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like imagine what your non luxury business can be like and how you can stand out if you had the inside secrets.
• 18:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: So that's what I teach at the Exceptional Business Academy.
• 18:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I often, in fact, we literally have a chart that's the ordinary world and the exceptional world.
• 18:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, because that's, that's been my translation my whole life.
• 18:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's like, well, the ordinary world thinks this way.
• 18:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: The exceptional world thinks this way.
• 18:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: And where the ordinary world might see it as research or you know, developing an avatar.
• 18:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: The exceptional world, I went to those places not because I was looking to define an ideal client or an avatar.
• 18:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: I went there, in the exceptional world, you go there to embody the life of the people that you want to serve.
• 19:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: You're not just learning it in your head, you're embodying it in your body.
• 19:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like what does it feel like to walk into a high-end store?
• 19:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: Why?
• 19:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: Why?
• 19:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: What's the psychology?
• 19:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I'll give you an example.
• 19:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: On the high-end market, you will rarely see a cash register.
• 19:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, if you're shopping in the most exclusive stores.
• 19:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: The cash registers are actually in backrooms.
• 19:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: So the sales associates will take your credit card, take your merchandise into a backroom and come back with it, perhaps it beautifully wrapped, or you go to a different department to get it wrapped.
• 19:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: But you don't see the transaction of money.
• 19:39
  Jeffrey Shaw: You go to Walmart, Target, the cash registers are lined up like cattle corral.
• 19:45
  Tom: Right.
• 19:46
  Jeffrey Shaw: Think about
• 19:46
  Tom: Yeah.
• 19:47
  Tom: Brilliant.
• 19:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: been one of the most fascinating psychologies to me, because it seems so upside down.
• 19:52
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like why in the market where people can't afford things as easily do you make the money more obvious?
• 19:58
  Jeffrey Shaw: Whereas on the high end, Where money isn't an issue, why is it less obvious?
• 20:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's actually because it's, it's a transactional mindset.
• 20:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: The luxury market isn't thinking transactions because transactions aren't a big deal to them.
• 20:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: They're thinking emotions and experience.
• 20:14
  Jeffrey Shaw: So in the high end, you want to strip away the transaction.
• 20:18
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I suggest this to high end businesses all the time.
• 20:20
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, what's your payment process?
• 20:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: It should be minimal number of steps as easy as could be because your wealthy clientele doesn't want to deal with transactions.
• 20:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: They don't live in a transactional world.
• 20:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: They live in an experiential world.
• 20:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, you know, it's, I found all this fascinating.
• 20:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I wanted to understand the psychology of, of everything.
• 20:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: And yeah, I agree at 23 years old, I look back at it now and I'm like, I don't know where that instinct came from.
• 20:47
  Jeffrey Shaw: Just massive
• 20:48
  Tom: You're You're brilliant.
• 20:48
  Tom: That's why.
• 20:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: It really is about embodying it.
• 20:52
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, you don't, don't just learn it.
• 20:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: You know, I,
• 20:54
  Tom: Yeah.
• 20:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: Even up to this day, I tell my clients, Go particularly the the luxury clients and luxury businesses that I work with.
• 21:00
  Jeffrey Shaw: I tell them, go to the most expensive places you can imagine.
• 21:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: You don't have to buy a thing, just embody it.
• 21:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like go where the money is dripping off the walls so you can feel it.
• 21:12
  Jeffrey Shaw: So you can understand there's an abundance of the world.
• 21:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: Even in times when it feels like the shit's hitting the van, you can go somewhere to feel like just.
• 21:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: No, there's still an abundance available out to you.
• 21:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: You need to really feel that and that's what will keep you going.
• 21:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: So to me I focus on embodying being led with our heart and embodying the people we serve.
• 21:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: Their lifestyle, the lifestyle you want, and don't just learn it.
• 21:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: Don't just build an avatar, but understand them at a deep level.
• 21:44
  Tom: Yeah.
• 21:45
  Tom: And you're, you're completely so, so accurate on the, the luxury brands and the, the, the huge difference, like even the five star hotels, you know, you aren't going to see the, the, a glass wall in a little, little hole where you speak through and get the key you there.
• 22:05
  Tom: Generally there's no, there's, there's no desk or it's, it's a very cash kind of off in a corner or something like that.
• 22:11
  Tom: It's about the experience.
• 22:12
  Tom: The other thing that's really like you go into, you know, like a Louis Vuitton and the smell is much different than if you go to Kmart or Walmart.
• 22:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah, that's one of the keys
• 22:23
  Tom: So much.
• 22:23
  Tom: That's
• 22:23
  Jeffrey Shaw: One of the key secrets of luxury is it's an entire environment.
• 22:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like it is, it, it's not anyone thing.
• 22:31
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's not the brand that they built.
• 22:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's not their reputation.
• 22:34
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's certainly not the quality.
• 22:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: I mean, there's plenty of main street jewelers that are every bit as good perhaps as Tiffany, but it's a whole ecosystem.
• 22:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: Everything is considered.
• 22:44
  Jeffrey Shaw: No, no, no T is missed.
• 22:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like everything's crossed.
• 22:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like that's, that's what makes it.
• 22:51
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's a luxury brand, exceptional.
• 22:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: And when you dig into the what they've created in this way, it was in my photography business.
• 22:57
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like there was there, you know, if it were an eight cylinder engine, you don't get away with six of those cylinders firing.
• 23:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: It, you are held to a high standard all the time.
• 23:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I'm always, I always point this out with my, my consulting clients that when you're, you're working with the most uncompromising clientele on the planet.
• 23:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: Now I'm very careful in my choice of words there because I dislike the clientele being referred to as discerning.
• 23:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: Because discerning
• 23:23
  Tom: Oh, is almost always said with a, an insult.
• 23:27
  Tom: Like oh, they're a very discerning clientele.
• 23:29
  Tom: I feel like energetically you're calling them picky, unnecessarily picky.
• 23:34
  Tom: Where Okay.
• 23:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: They're just uncompromising and nor should they be like they have gotten to a point in their lives where they're not into compromising.
• 23:44
  Jeffrey Shaw: Right there don't compromise on on what they purchase where they live compromise on how many homes they want.
• 23:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: They want it all and they've earned it all so they're an uncompromising hotel clientele.
• 23:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: So when you're working with them.
• 23:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: One thing I can tell you without a doubt with the uncompromising clientele is that their antennas are raised higher than everybody else.
• 24:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: So you have to operate at a whole other level because they will smell your insincerity, your inauthenticity.
• 24:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: They will smell dishonesty a million miles away.
• 24:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like I always tell clients, if you're going, if you want to serve the luxury market because you think the roads are paved with gold, they will smell that a million miles away and you will go nowhere.
• 24:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's what I actually refer to it as in my keynotes, I refer to this as your diamond edge factor.
• 24:29
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, what's your diamond edge factor and your diamond edge is figuring out why this is this uncompromising clientele is the market you're meant to serve.
• 24:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: Why are you meant to serve them?
• 24:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: That's bigger than the money and bigger than trying to keep up with their demands, right?
• 24:48
  Tom: Hmm.
• 24:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: You have to find for yourself an internal reason being led by your heart.
• 24:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: You have to determine for yourself, why do you, why do you feel meant to serve this clientele that's bigger than the money
• 25:00
  Tom: Hmm.
• 25:01
  Jeffrey Shaw: Because they'll smell that too far away.
• 25:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's one of the advantages, I think, of working with an uncompromising clientele is they require you to be of what I refer to as clean energy more than any other market.
• 25:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like you have to be clean.
• 25:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: You have to be clean in your intentions, your behavior, integrity, because if you're not, they will, they'll know it.
• 25:19
  Tom: Yeah.
• 25:19
  Tom: Oh, absolutely.
• 25:21
  Tom: Like even, even non uncom or even compromising folks sometimes can, can see that insincerity and that, that BS a mile away for sure.
• 25:32
  Tom: Yeah.
• 25:32
  Tom: That's, that's fascinating.
• 25:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: And
• 25:34
  Tom: The other thing that you
• 25:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: Okay, go ahead,
• 25:35
  Tom: Go ahead,
• 25:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: I'll let you, I was just gonna say add to that, but go ahead.
• 25:39
  Tom: That, that care more for the client than for yourself.
• 25:44
  Tom: And just that phrase alone just really embodies what heart-led is all about.
• 25:48
  Tom: Absolutely.
• 25:48
  Tom: Absolutely.
• 25:48
  Tom: Absolutely.
• 25:48
  Tom: And when you do that, I feel like the client one appreciates it, of course, who wouldn't, but it's going to come back over and over and over again versus if you were just looking at a spreadsheet and looking at, okay, who are my top clients?
• 26:03
  Tom: Okay.
• 26:03
  Tom: This one has spent so much with me.
• 26:05
  Tom: I like them.
• 26:05
  Tom: This one hasn't spent so much.
• 26:07
  Tom: I don't necessarily like them so much.
• 26:09
  Tom: And, and you're putting them on a value spectrum versus how, how much do I care about them?
• 26:14
  Tom: How much do I enjoy working with them?
• 26:17
  Tom: And generally, if you look at the value like that they bring to you, the ones that you care about, the one that you really enjoy, those are the higher value clients and the higher margin, more profit, you know, it's, it works out so well.
• 26:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah I, on a basic level, I, you know, cause we all know the experience, like, you know, there's clients that use bend over backward forward and jump through hoops for, they're almost always the biggest hassle and least profitable.
• 26:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: And then there are the clients that
• 26:41
  Tom: Right.
• 26:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: are the easiest to work with.
• 26:42
  Jeffrey Shaw: They're the most profitable, like you want more of those, but to your
• 26:45
  Tom: Yep.
• 26:46
  Jeffrey Shaw: like, I think, you know, Yes, it's, it's putting their hearts up before your own, but not throwing yourself under the bus.
• 26:52
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, let's not, you know, ignore that.
• 26:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's not just about lacking self-care but also
• 26:58
  Tom: Yeah.
• 26:58
  Tom: Yeah.
• 26:59
  Jeffrey Shaw: your rewards for doing this work, your rewards for having clean energy are significant.
• 27:05
  Jeffrey Shaw: It can build, you can build your own wealth.
• 27:07
  Jeffrey Shaw: It can be the reward of actually leading with your heart.
• 27:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: And it should be.
• 27:11
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I can almost guarantee, especially in today's world.
• 27:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I say that because the biggest change I've seen in my life over 40 years span of business is that people today in the last several years, and again biggest shift in the world is the degree to which people make decisions based on how they feel about somebody.
• 27:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: Versus you're the best in your field.
• 27:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: I started my business in the 80s.
• 27:34
  Jeffrey Shaw: I could have been a complete jerk and but I was I was the photographer.
• 27:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was the well known amongst affluent families.
• 27:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: I had the brand I had the reputation people wanted Me as the label of their family photographer I could have been a jerk and they would have hired me and I know that because those very same people were hiring the in interior designer at the time and complaining about that interior designer being horrible to work with, but he or she was the one to have.
• 28:01
  Jeffrey Shaw: Today, you will not get away with that.
• 28:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: People have to like you more than they, they want you to do a good job.
• 28:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: But you could be the best in your field, but they won't work with you if energetically they don't feel like you're somebody they want to be with.
• 28:14
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, knowing that change, I think there's just no doubt heart-led businesses are the future.
• 28:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: If our clientele and if consumers of the world are going to make decisions on how they energetically feel about somebody, those that are leading with their heart and showing up in clean energy are going to win.
• 28:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: So let's not ignore the rewards and benefits of actually being a heart-led business.
• 28:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's certainly not about throwing you under the bus.
• 28:40
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I also want to add to that, that this is where getting so clear on who you're meant to serve is important.
• 28:46
  Jeffrey Shaw: My next book, my third book comes out in April.
• 28:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's called Sell to the Rich.
• 28:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: Unpacks all of this.
• 28:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: My favorite line in that book.
• 28:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I wrote it, it brought tears to my eyes.
• 28:57
  Jeffrey Shaw: I go back to it.
• 28:58
  Jeffrey Shaw: My favorite line in an entire book is, I knew who my clients were so well, I loved them before I met them, and I only grew to love them more after I worked with them.
• 29:10
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like, I was so clear, and I defined my ideal clients were what I called family centric affluent families.
• 29:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: Okay, they weren't all affluent families because there are plenty of affluent families that don't put their family first.
• 29:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: I worked with people.
• 29:26
  Jeffrey Shaw: That a family of four might have had a staff of eight or ten people running the house.
• 29:30
  Jeffrey Shaw: Housekeepers, nannies, the whole bit.
• 29:32
  Jeffrey Shaw: But they did so, so the parents could go to the soccer games and the ballet recitals.
• 29:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: Those families were so, those parents were families.
• 29:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: Their children were their world.
• 29:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: They were investing, investing in their children's futures.
• 29:46
  Jeffrey Shaw: And guess what?
• 29:47
  Jeffrey Shaw: They loved to invest in preserving the memories and a representation of the lifestyle they built.
• 29:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: I was their choice and that's who I was meant to serve.
• 29:57
  Jeffrey Shaw: I love affluent people that put their children first.
• 30:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: It moves me.
• 30:04
  Jeffrey Shaw: I love, you're that person.
• 30:06
  Jeffrey Shaw: I love you and I haven't even met you yet.
• 30:08
  Jeffrey Shaw: When I meet you and I get to know you and you invite me into your home, into your holiday parties, and I get to know your, I'm going to fall in love with your kids, I'm just going to love you more.
• 30:17
  Jeffrey Shaw: But the advantage of being so clear on who you're meant to serve is you have the opportunity to love them, be head led with your heart before you've even met them.
• 30:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: Now, imagine what that feels like in business, you know, no fear of working with the client who's going to make you miserable.
• 30:33
  Jeffrey Shaw: But I knew, and I, to this, I feel this way as a client, a coach as well.
• 30:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: I love who I coach before I even met them because I only work with people that are so aligned with who I know I'm meant to serve that there's just no doubt that I'm, we're going to have a loving heart-led relationship.
• 30:50
  Tom: Yeah, that's, oh, that's, that warms my heart.
• 30:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: Mine too.
• 30:55
  Tom: That, yeah.
• 30:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah.
• 30:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: Mhm.
• 30:56
  Tom: I mean it's, it's so beautiful and just so on brand with being heart-led and helping, helping others at a very high level as well.
• 31:06
  Tom: Yeah.
• 31:06
  Tom: And just so great.
• 31:08
  Tom: More businesses need to like, take this advice.
• 31:11
  Tom: If you're listening out there, definitely take this advice and go with it and your business is going to thrive.
• 31:19
  Jeffrey Shaw: Yeah, and, and, you know, I'll, I'll, to that point, I'll just mirror that or echo that by saying, please do.
• 31:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: Because the number one advice I'm giving to people right now in the times we're living in because it's just chaotic.
• 31:34
  Jeffrey Shaw: I don't care.
• 31:35
  Jeffrey Shaw: I'm not getting into politics.
• 31:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: It's just, it's chaotic.
• 31:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: The world is chaotic.
• 31:38
  Jeffrey Shaw: And the number one thing I tell people is take care of your own world.
• 31:43
  Jeffrey Shaw: Just if, if everybody just takes care of their own world, like don't stop growing, don't stop trying to be heart-led.
• 31:49
  Jeffrey Shaw: Don't stop trying to grow your business, investing in your business and personal growth.
• 31:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: Don't stop.
• 31:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: Take care of your own world.
• 31:55
  Jeffrey Shaw: I guarantee you the more people that do that, the global impact can calm the complexity.
• 32:03
  Jeffrey Shaw: And there's a, there's a wonderful Native American story about just that, about a little tiny hummingbird filling up his beak, trying to put out a wildfire.
• 32:16
  Jeffrey Shaw: And a jaguar says to the hummingbird, laughing at him, like, that, that's not going to do anything.
• 32:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: And he says, I know that, but this is my home.
• 32:24
  Jeffrey Shaw: This is where I live.
• 32:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: This is what my, the forest feeds me.
• 32:27
  Jeffrey Shaw: I need to do my part.
• 32:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: And, you know, by Native American folklore the universe heard the hummingbird and sent a downpour of rain to put out the fire.
• 32:37
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, It's the story that's handed down in Native American cultures.
• 32:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: To share just that, it's like, just do your part.
• 32:45
  Jeffrey Shaw: Just do your part and something miraculous can happen.
• 32:48
  Jeffrey Shaw: And I think that's the best thing we can do right now.
• 32:50
  Jeffrey Shaw: So, you know, be heart-led.
• 32:53
  Jeffrey Shaw: Please do.
• 32:54
  Jeffrey Shaw: Do your part.
• 32:56
  Tom: Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:57
  Tom: Yeah And business will come.
• 32:59
  Tom: Yeah.
• 32:59
  Tom: Jeffrey, this has been just an amazing conversation.
• 33:02
  Tom: I'm looking at the clock.
• 33:02
  Tom: I'm like, Oh my gosh, we've been going on and it doesn't feel like it as at all.
• 33:08
  Tom: But tell us how, how can people learn more about your coaching, your business and get in touch with you?
• 33:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: Sure.
• 33:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: So honestly, I first go to my website and I don't often just give out my website because, you know, it's usually I give out a lead magnet or something.
• 33:22
  Jeffrey Shaw: But in this case, I'm just going to say go to go to my website, jeffreyshaw.com, spelling
• 33:27
  Tom: Spell it.
• 33:28
  Jeffrey Shaw: J E F F R E Y, jeffreyshaw.com, because honestly, I think I'm very transparent, pure, and heart-led on my website.
• 33:36
  Jeffrey Shaw: And if you don't see that, or if you don't see it, let me know.
• 33:39
  Jeffrey Shaw: And if you do see it, let me know.
• 33:41
  Jeffrey Shaw: But I continually.
• 33:44
  Jeffrey Shaw: And you know, again, I'm 40 years in.
• 33:46
  Jeffrey Shaw: Just last night, I completely rewrote my LinkedIn profile, every part of it, from the about to the description of my services, because I felt like I had a more heart-led way of writing it today than I had, a year ago or months ago.
• 34:00
  Jeffrey Shaw: So I'm constantly, and even on my website, my about page, people visit all the time because I flat out on my about page say, here are my six values and why.
• 34:09
  Jeffrey Shaw: Like I list my values, my uncompromising values.
• 34:13
  Jeffrey Shaw: I list the organizations that I support.
• 34:15
  Jeffrey Shaw: So just go to jeffreyshaw.com, live in my brand, my world which hopefully will feel luxurious as well as I think you'll know who I am.
• 34:25
  Jeffrey Shaw: And if you, if you're still confused, let me know.
• 34:27
  Tom: Awesome.
• 34:28
  Tom: Thank you for that.
• 34:29
  Tom: And Jeffrey, thank you for spending the time with me today and with our audience.
• 34:33
  Tom: I really do appreciate it.
• 34:34
  Jeffrey Shaw: My pleasure.
• 34:35
  Tom: And thank you listeners for listening in to the show or watching it on YouTube.
• 34:39
  Tom: I really do appreciate it.
• 34:40
  Tom: Make sure you're checking out everything that Jeffrey's doing.
• 34:43
  Tom: We're going to link all that up into the show notes, even put some links to his books in there as well.
• 34:48
  Tom: Make sure you're checking that out and seeing what true luxury brand can do for your heart-led business and definitely take the advice that he gave today and be more heart-led in your business.
• 34:59
  Tom: And until next time, lead with your heart.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to the heart-led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.