Shama Hyder:
It’s not a nice to have, right? It’s not an additional, it’s like, well, it’s this or bust. So you can’t… If your trade shows are canceled and you can’t do what you’re traditionally doing, you have to embrace the digital, you have to look at how do we grow. And the power also of, I think, people realizing how important earned media is. So a lot of times when their budgets are getting shifted and they’re having to be more careful and think about, “Hey, where do we focus?” Realizing that when someone else says something about you, it’s 10 times more powerful than what you say about yourself.
David:
And there she is.
Shama Hyder:
Hey.
David:
How are you?
Shama Hyder:
How are you?
David:
I am terrific. Thanks for joining me.
Shama Hyder:
Oh my goodness, this is fun.
David:
I love that flower, how did you do that?
Shama Hyder:
I’m in Miami, so I thought that was pretty Miami appropriate, no?
David:
And it matches you too. That’s amazing.
Shama Hyder:
Good morning.
David:
Good morning. Well we were talking about Martins and millionaires and mindset, and I think that’s right up your alley and understanding to have the right perspective and empowering others to be happy. So tell me a little bit about what you have going on right now.
Shama Hyder:
Oh my goodness. Well, like so many people I’ve been home bound. So usually I’m in the air and I’m traveling. And so this is different. It’s good though, I’ve been running Zen media for 12 years. So this is the first time where I’ve been home bound for so long, and it really helps you take a good look and use this time to say, “Where the business headed? How are we doing? How can we better serve our clients?” And given everything that’s going on right now, we’ve seen such an increase, an influx of people who are embracing digital, right?
David:
Yeah.
Shama Hyder:
So I don’t know if you see like that meme, David, that’s been going around. It’s like, “What caused digital transformation? Was it your CMO, CEO, or COVID?”
David:
Yeah. I vote for COVID.
Shama Hyder:
COVID, yeah, that’s what causes that.
David:
And I think beyond just digital transformation, what it’s done is allowed us to utilize what assets we have. So it’s not only the digital assets, you know? And I’ll give you an example, for me even for years, I had a friend trying to push me to use zoom and he would send me, “Let’s do a zoom call.” And I’d roll my eyes going, “I don’t want to do a zoom call. I want to do a phone call so I can do my emails and not look at you, right? So I can multitask-
Shama Hyder:
Sure.
David:
… put you on speaker phone. I don’t want to do a zoom call. But that technology has existed and because of COVID now, people were more open because they were forced into using it. And they actually got to see the value and it accelerated the learning curve of that digital technology. But I think that most people don’t realize the other side of the learning curve that COVID has forced us to look at, which is our personal values. I see a lot of people looking at their health. I can’t say how many people have lost the quarantine 15, not gained the quarantine 15.
Shama Hyder:
Right, right.
David:
And I think family-wise, even me, I fly 200 days a year around the world, thinking that I have my life in balance, a weighted balance as I teach. And you know, all this empowering talk about having a great marriage, and four kids, and people admiring how well you balance all of that. And meanwhile, COVID had shown me that as much as that may have been true in my perception, it was more hypocrisy that I could have done a lot better job. And I tell people all the time, “You can invite me right now to go to the super bowl next year. But if all four kids and my wife are available for dinner I’m not going, because I value those dinners way more than I did. And I see a different value, the same way I value zoom much more than I did before COVID. What are some of the things that you value more? Because you’re someone like me your butt is in the air more than it’s on the ground.
Shama Hyder:
Yeah. But you know, it’s funny because I think as time changes your life is in different phases, your priorities change. Right? And I became a mom last year, so I have a one-year-old and thank you. And so to me that all of a sudden raised my bar considerably in terms of I don’t want to travel as much. I mean that was… Because like you I’m away from my family, right? And when you’re in your twenties and single there’s less trade off and it’s good because you’re traveling, and you’re meeting people, and it’s fun. And those are good life experiences to have. At this point in my life where I can get more done when I’m in one place working on my next book, right? Or working with a client from here.
Shama Hyder:
And that’s the funny thing I do think is that I’ve been offering remote keynotes for 10 years, as long as I’ve been doing keynotes there was always an option to have remote. Well, no one’s ever taken it… Like very rarely, webinars here and there. But now I’m like, “I really like this.”
David:
Yeah.
Shama Hyder:
I miss the stage. I’ll do it, but I’m just going to be a lot more picky because every day that I’m away, I’m away from my son, I’m away from my husband. And my family is super supportive of my career, and that’s nice, but still it’s a trade-off. Right? And you’ve got to think about those trade-offs. And I think with everything happening people are thinking about it. The contrast is stronger, right? Where you’re really able to be like, wow, forced to kind of find that stillness and say, “What’s different? Do I like this?”
Shama Hyder:
The other thing, we’ve been a work from home company for 12 years, we’ve never had an office. And now we’ve seen more resumes than ever before, because people have tried the work from home thing and they’re like, “I like this. I want to stay with a company that’s not going to go back.” Because this is how we’ve always been. So I think that’s been interesting too, for a lot of my… Just to see the rise in resumes and so forth. The folks saying, “I tried this and my company is going to go back, or try to go partially back, and I don’t want to. I really like… And I want to move to Texas, or I want to move to Georgia. I want to be closer to family.” So you’re right, this has been, for a lot of people highlighted the importance of family and the importance of who’s in your circle, who’s in your COVID circle, your quarantine circle. Right?
David:
Yeah, it’s so smart.
Shama Hyder:
I mean, think about it, so it’s not these people that are way out there, but who’s in your closest circle.
David:
And it’s so interesting because, like we said, a lot of those things that you have offered for years now have really come full circle, that learning curve. And for me too, I had one day New Zealand, Hong Kong, UK, New York four speeches. Four keynotes in one day-
Shama Hyder:
Wow.
David:
… and I was thinking to myself, albeit they’re not paying what they paid to have me fly there, house me at a resort, spend a weekend and all of that. But on the other side I didn’t have to do any of that either. Right? I mean, there’s no human way that I could do that in one week, let alone one day. And it was so easy because in between all those great speeches, besides changing my shirt so all the videos didn’t look the same. You know, it was 30 to 45 minutes for each of them and I still had time for a whole bunch of other things.
Shama Hyder:
Yeah.
David:
And in pretty much the amount of it time would take me to drive to lax to fly, just the drive to the airport, not counting security and waiting at the gate I had four speeches done.
Shama Hyder:
Yes, that’s amazing.
David:
And they had the content afterwards immediately. Right?
Shama Hyder:
Yeah.
David:
It’s so amazing. And now I’m-
Shama Hyder:
And more people probably tuned in, right? More people probably were able to catch it who wouldn’t have been able to, you know, if someone missed it. And like now, I mean, I don’t know if you’re seeing this David, but we’re seeing a huge spike, even with clients with their sales pipeline and lead gen.
David:
Yeah.
Shama Hyder:
Clients who were really worried like, “Oh, our trade shows are canceled.” And then when you look into it and you’re like, “Oh, okay. So why were you going to the trade show in the first place? What was the goal?” And it’s like, “I don’t know, it’s what we’ve done for 20 something years.” Right? And it’s like, “Can you do that maybe without the trade show?”
David:
Yeah. Without all the expense, right, and time. So it is amazing. I think one of the other areas that’s more interesting as well is I’m working with this company Clarity Experiences because I do TV shows and the… And these big productions, right, that you do, it’s the same kind of waste. So many people, so many cameras, so many unions, right? I mean, the unions must be bummed because they have no control, there’s no safety issues, there’s nothing to pick on. You know what I mean? So like, I have a virtual set for my new TV show that’s so incredible.
Shama Hyder:
Amazing.
David:
And it’s literally… I’ve been using it even on my stream yard and people are like, “Where are you right now?” Because it’s a stage and they can change all the assets, and inventory, and real estate moves. So much more flexible. Especially, you and I both know, when you’re stepping on a stage live there’s always like, “Do you have my right slide?” or the person… Right?
Shama Hyder:
Right.
David:
It’s so much easier to maneuver, and change, and fix, and rehearse. Right? What about the expense of rehearsing? So just an extraordinary thing. Now, what have been the great values now that you can provide to your clients as well? Because you’ve been in business for 12 years, even though you don’t look like you could be in business for 12 years, or even a mom.
Shama Hyder:
Oh, thank you.
David:
To me you look so young.
Shama Hyder:
I appreciate it, thank you.
David:
But what are some of the greater capabilities and values that you’re providing to your clients now?
Shama Hyder:
Now a lot more companies are taking us up on that because you said, it’s not a nice to have, right? It’s not an additional, it’s like, well, it’s this or bust. So you can’t… If your trade shows are canceled and you can do what you’re traditionally doing, you have to embrace the digital. You have to look at how do we grow and the power also of I think people realizing how important earned media is. So a lot of times when their budgets are getting shifted and they’re having to be more careful and think about, “Hey, where do we focus?” Realizing that when someone else says something about you, it’s 10 times more powerful than what you say about yourself, right?
Shama Hyder:
So an article in Forbes or Inc is way more powerful than you taking out an ad or whatever it may be. And so I think these kind of… I’ve seen this happen at a micro level over the years, but now you see that big jump and it’s like, “Okay, we’re in, we’re ready to embrace it.” And in ways that you wouldn’t even think about, and it’s been fascinating.
Shama Hyder:
So to give you an example, one of our clients is a medical surgeon who also has an aesthetics training center. And so he used to do live trainings to show and train medical assistants on how to do Botox for example. And that’s a very physical thing. If you think about actually having students showing them how to hold the needle, right? All these things, we were able to take all of that and move it completely digital and ship mannequins to student’s houses and sealing injections. And you know what? It was amazing. And now it’s opened up this entire international audience that can now participate and get the certification. And it’s very much like this, right? So I’d have a mannequin here. And let’s say that you were the doctor and you were giving feedback and you can watch the technique and the entire…. All the other students can also participate and have that interaction.
Shama Hyder:
So it’s really kind of neat to be able to take things that people thought were very physical and transform them and find that the results are very similar, if not better. I mean, now you open it up to an international market, a lot of folks in the Middle East who wanted to take his classes and they don’t have to come to the West coast for four days, they don’t become the LA to do this. They can do it online. So things like that I think have been really cool to see. And how quickly, right? So not a conversation that takes months or something you’re thinking about. It’s like, “Oh, we need to do this yesterday.”
David:
That’s so cool. Your ideal client… Last question, your ideal client, who is your ideal client today and has it changed since the beginning of COVID?
Shama Hyder:
Yeah, so the clients that we do a lot of work with are tech forward companies who are looking to get more visibility, to get awareness. What’s changed, I think, is now the bar for people who… And I’ve always been this way so my thing at workplaces has always been like, “We don’t preach, we just baptize those who are ready.” And I think that’s more true than ever before. If I still have to sit here and explain to you why you need this, why this is important, I’m like, “Buddy, you’re going to have to get in the back of the line.” Right? It’s really for people who are like, “No, no, you’ve got to do this. You’re hungry, you’re ready.” And I think people understand urgency, right? Like not the… This is, and I’m sure you would agree with this Dave, this is not a wait and see kind of time.
David:
Yeah.
Shama Hyder:
Fortunes are made at this time, careers are made, leaders are made. This is a great time actually, to be alive and be in business. So that’s my take on it.
David:
Yeah, no doubt. And you’re living proof that with great change comes great opportunity. And you’ve been able to accelerate and expand during that period of time and coming out the other side. And I see about a third of the people being in a better place, a third of the people being in the same place. And unfortunately, a third of the people not seeing the light, the love, and the lessons in what we’re doing and unfortunately giving themselves a farther and heavier road to travel. But it’s truly a mindset and a heart set and you have the right mindset and heart set, where can people find you?
Shama Hyder:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I hope you keep doing these because resources like yours, I think really help-
David:
Thank you.
Shama Hyder:
… the people that are hungry, that the… I mean, I love that you’re sharing so generously of stuff that I know corporations pay very big bucks for. So thank you Dave for doing that. People can find me pick your poison across social platforms. Of course, you’re on Instagram it’s Shamahyder and zenmedia.com if you want to learn more about us.
David:
You guys are amazing. Thank you so much. Let’s catch up and come on any time, let me know.
Shama Hyder:
I’d love that, talk soon. Bye.
David:
Have fun.
Shama Hyder:
Thanks.
David:
Take care of that baby. Congrats.
Shama Hyder:
I will, thank you.
David:
All righty, bye-bye.
Shama Hyder:
Bye.
