The Soulful Art of Persuasion and How to Lead Through Adversity with Jason Harris

During this episode of The Community Builder Show, Travis sits down with Jason Harris, President and CEO of Mekanism Inc., a San Francisco-based creative agency and the Author The Soulful Art of Persuasion. Learn about his 4 principles for success, how he’s leading his team through adversity, and even what he’s doing to stay connected with his friends. This is one you won’t want to miss.

Jason Harris Short Bio

Jason Harris is the co-founder and CEO of the award-winning creative agency Mekanism and co-founder of the Creative Alliance. Harris works closely with brands through a blend of soul and science to create provocative campaigns that engage audiences. Iconic brands include Peloton, Ben & Jerry's, MolsonCoors, OkCupid and the United Nations.

Under his leadership, Mekanism has been named the #6 Most Effective Independent Advertising Agency in the US by the Effie 2020 Index. Mekanism has also been named to Ad Age's Agency A-list and twice to their Best Places to Work. Harris has been named in the Top 10 Most Influential Social Impact Leaders, as well as the 4A's list of "100 People Who Make Advertising Great." His methods are studied in cases at Harvard Business School.

Episode Highlights

Principle 1: Original

• Be Yourself - Everyone Else Is Taken: Don’t be afraid of wearing your personal idiosyncrasies on your sleeve. Collect role models and draw inspiration from their uniqueness. And stick to your core values
• Learn to Be a Great Storyteller: If you want to make your point of view real to an audience or someone else, you need to be able to transport them emotionally through narrative
• Never Be Closing: Let go of short-term transactional thinking and focus on building meaningful relationships

Principle 2: Generous

• Give Something Away in Every Interaction: Whenever you cross paths with someone, your goal should be to leave them just a little better off than they were. Whatever you give, make sure it’s genuine as you are laying the groundwork for collaboration
• Practice Positivity: Cultivate your sense of gratitude for the good things in your life, recognize that every interaction could result in something great
• Take Others Seriously by Showing Respect: Keep your promises, be as present as possible, and admit your mistakes quickly and sincerely

Principle 3: Empathetic

• Make It About Them: Develop a natural curiosity about others, listen and learn more than you judge, and seek to understand others more deeply
• Seek Out Collaborations: Find value in joining forces with people from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise
• See Commonalities, Not Differences: Seek out the common ground and what you share with, approaching each individual as an equal

Principle 4: Soulful

• Live Skillfully: Hunt out new skills and keep learning to develop passions that create a life defined by proficiency
• Be an Inspiration: Strive to be inspirational in your daily life by preaching less and acting more, finding a cause to fight for, and reaching out to those who inspire you

My Notes on Jason’s 4 Principles

1. Be Original
2. Beliefs, what you value in life
3. Have a point of view
4. Be yourself, everyone else is taken
5. Be *Generous*
6. Give things away without expecting anything in return
7. Builds trust and helps keep business flowing
8. Jason had a ball hog mentality and knew it wasn’t right
9. Over time, developed the idea of mindfully being a generous person
10. Try to give something to everyone you come in contact with
11. Advice or an article to let people know you’re thinking about them
12. Be Empathetic
13. Collaboration
14. Connecting with people
15. Working on ideas together
16. How do you become a collaborative business person
17. Be Soulful

• Trying to give something back that’s bigger than yourself

Examples for agency owners

• Positive persuasion vs negative persuasion
• b2b marketers, sales, people, entrepreneurs
• Habits under each of these principles

Leadership

• How are you leading the Mekanism internal community right now and what's most important for your people?
• Help lead the people he works with and be vulnerable
• Lead with Internal Team Be very open and vulnerable with their team
• Be Inspirational

Zoom call

• COVID
• Clients
• Company - revenue numbers - shortfalls
• Leading with transparency and when you build trust for your employees,
• Lead with Clients
• Keeping the clients comfortable and the staff motivated

“Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” - Michael Jordan

How to get around the wall

• Never let a good crisis go to waste
• Gives entrepreneurs a time to rethink your company
• Things you have been pushing off
• Faster more nimble, less expensive production at scale
• Gifts with an array of talent to pull off
• Tiered Production system - high-level peloton commercial
• Charles Schwab adds with high clientele
• Earmark a specialist in HIGH
• Medium Low - production money with some time and not super high end
• Bottom Tier - Low cost. Superfast. Nimble production that can churn out volume
• In the social media and digital performance marketing space
• Specialization and giving

B2B companies = typically are performance-driven

• Have to have a mix of Brand and Performance
• B2B company still has to build a brand that people recognize
• Brand building is so critical
• Simple Message
• Consistent over time
• Find a way to get your hard card audience and community to help market your brand

We all have to be great storytellers

• Have to be able to emotionally transport people through a narrative
• How do you tell a story with data

B2B Marketer = super detailed

• Always be marketing at the highest level so anyone in the world can understand what you do
• Then you can go deeper
• If this was a global brand and one of the best brands in the world, how can we get everyone to understand what we do
• Niche Niche Niche.

Mental Health - What you're seeing and thoughts you might have for people trying to improve their mental health.

• Virtual Therapy - how other people perceive you
• Specific issues are sure.
• Death
• Isolation
• Anxiety

Understanding how you come off to the world

• How you intake information and get in touch with those emotions and how the rest of the world sees you
• A really valuable tool for anyone in business and life
• Group Therapy
• Therapy with people trying to get their hours in
• Meditation
• Exercise
• I don’t have to be invincible and I go through hard times
• Creating an environment where people have space

Creating an Ad over a Zoom call

• Someone has an idea
• Book the right people
• Get on the page and in there
• Zoom from 8 to 7 every day
• 4 Hours = 2 hours window where nobody can book a meeting
• Deep Work Time
• Mental Health Days - Friday & Monday to extend weekends
• Team HH - not work-related

Staying in touch with friends outside of work

• When you read something or find something interesting - think about why and how it might speak to someone in your network (professional or personal)
• Doesn’t have to be a zoom call - text it to them with a note
• Hey, was thinking about you, I thought you might find this relevant
• 1:1 vs 1: to many

Brands are becoming a bigger part of people's lives - how have you helped brands connect with their people in the past? What are you working on right now that you're excited about?

• Company Actions
• Community-based communications
• Campaign Consideration: Are you adapting to the new normal on the campaigns that you make?
• Conscious Presence: Why does your brand exist in the world?
• How do you greet people without touching people?
• Fun piece

Links

Jason Harris: LinkedIn

The Soulful Art of Persuasion Website

jason.harris@mekanism.com

Instagram: @Jason_Harris