MKJ (00:00.76)
Hello, hello, CEO Mischief Makers. Welcome to the conversation, MKJ here. And I can’t wait to chat with my guest, Josh Elitch. Josh, are you ready to rock on this thing and chat with me on this podcast?

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (00:14.944)
MKJ, I am delighted to be here. Thank you so much for having

MKJ (00:19.564)
I can’t wait. So Josh and I have known each other here and there and everywhere and in corners of different parts of marketing for several years now. And I just saw a post of his and went, I haven’t talked to Josh like forever. And I’ve got to chat with him and see what’s going on. So Josh, start us off by just introducing who you are and what you do.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (00:39.074)
Yeah, sure. So, you with a background as a journalist in the United States Navy for a number of years, that kind of led to my path of multiple businesses that I’ve started over the years. My last company did pretty well, Savings Angel. You we became a six -figure -a -month company just simply because I went out and served audiences with noble intent, just giving value.

And as a result, like we created that company with zero paid ads. It was just all organic, all generosity, all just being a good person to good people out there. And that led to that. So that’s kind of, you

You know, in that work, I accidentally started another company and of course that’s up my influence of which I think I have my greatest notoriety for today. But it’s essentially that same thing. It’s leveraging platform, it’s loving generosity, it’s leveraging serving audiences in order to make all of our goals happen consistently and predictably. most of my work, MKJ

is that of a chief revenue officer for B2B service providers, consultants, agency owners, coaches, as long as they’ve been around for a little bit of time so they have some decent authority. And basically my job is if they’re doing account -based sales and they’re relationship focused, I pretty much can keep them busy for the rest of their lives with sales introductions as long as they are willing to lead in generosity, which we’ll talk a little bit about here.

MKJ (02:16.132)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that. Because we are aligned completely on that topic. You give first and to good people, as you said, and it all comes back. You can call it whatever you like. Karma, can call it reciprocity, you can call it all kinds of things. But I believe 100 % in that. And I believe that that is how humans have been doing business forever. Whether the internet’s here or not doesn’t matter. So take us

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (02:41.166)
Certainly, yes.

MKJ (02:45.698)
I mean, that’s a pretty big shift from journalism in the Navy to marketing and to a sound that’s like a SaaS product. Was that what you had with the angel? Yeah. Yeah. That’s a bit. What’s that mindset? What was that mindset shift between getting out of there and going to

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (02:59.682)
with savings angel? yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so savings angel, go ahead. right.

Yeah, so what happened with Savings Angels is I really discovered, and again, this was a while ago, was back in 2007, but I had discovered, I did a lot of research and the problem that I wanted to figure out was I’ve heard of people that can cut their grocery bill in half and I knew that they had figured something out. And this was long before extreme couponing. And so I read every book on the topic I could find.

And I found out that there were two ways that any American could easily take an eight, $900 grocery bill and cut it down to three to $400. And there’s two ways you could do it. You can start to grow a lot of your own food and harvest and create a lot of your own food from home. You could raise chickens and that sort of thing. And you know what? It works, but it’s a lot of work. You got a lot of sweat equity. So that’s…

MKJ (03:59.096)
Yep.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (04:03.48)
wasn’t realistic for me. I didn’t necessarily at the time have a green thumb. I’ve certainly gotten one since then. But in reality, I had to look for other options. And so what I had found out was that you can save a ton of money if you just get a lot smarter around the timing of available discounts that you have open to you. Now, what I mean by that are sales, coupons, rebates,

other incentives, right? And so that was savings angels whole thing is we would basically take all of that data and say, you know, okay, grab this coupon, get as many copies of this coupon as possible. Wait, wait, wait, okay, now go, go to Meyer. And so we would help people get boxed at Cheerios for 25 cents, you these $5 boxed at Cheerios, like it was stuff like that. I would get free groceries every single week. Now, sadly, for someone who’s been listening, we describe this.

MKJ (04:51.522)
I got.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (04:58.71)
sorry, that business is no longer in business. I mean, it is, but it’s pretty much just a blog at this point. We don’t offer that service anymore. And since then, it’s been great. But MKJ, back to like why that, like how I got caught up in that was in my time in the Navy, when I was in journalism school, and it was a defense information school, where all the public relations people and the journalists and the broadcast journalists go to print journalists and so forth.

I had the opportunity to learn from Adrian Kronauer. Now, Adrian Kronauer, you may or may not recognize that name, that was Staff Sergeant Kronauer in the Vietnam War became the subject of the movie, Good Morning Vietnam, played by Robin Williams. And the whole story there is always, always, always be in integrity with your audience. Never lie. Sometimes that’s gonna put

MKJ (05:45.956)
Yes.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (05:57.002)
in situations where you say, if I do a hardcore, let me kind of transfer this now to maybe marketing and entrepreneurial, why does this matter to me? You can go on a stage and you can sell and you can have that masterful closing technique and you can use urgency and scarcity. And does that work, stuff work? Yeah, sure, works for some audiences. Some audiences it doesn’t.

MKJ (06:19.041)
Bye bye.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (06:24.498)
And one audience that in particular does not work very well for are gonna be sophisticated business owners, folks that have been around, folks that generally can have the ability to make bigger decisions. They’re the decision makers within the company. They’ve seen it all before, right? And so if you go down that road, you’re just gonna kind of be lumped into a bro -y, sales -y kind of thing.

And that’s not really who we work with. The folks that we work with, MKJ, are gonna be more, like they’re just very good at what they do. If they’re a leadership consultant or a marketing consultant, a branding consultant or something like that, like they do really good work. They’ve been doing it for a while. They have very good reputation. They’re the kind of people that if they were to walk into a room and say a VIP mixer at an event and just mill about and make relationships and chat it up, they would probably end up walking out of that room with

a of business, a couple of people that they’re probably gonna do business with. Like they’re just very talented people. That’s who we work with. Now, if you are one of those types of people, I’ve got such great news. You no longer need to compete in the red ocean of lead gen. It’s inappropriate for you to do that because your authority is kind of all you need. You really just need to build more relationships with your ideal connections and you’ll probably end up doing a lot of business.

Sorry, that was kind of a big answer that I ended up lumping a bunch of other stuff in there, MKJ.

MKJ (07:48.174)
Yeah. No, no. it’s perfect. Thank you. Because it showed that transition. It showed where the connection was between those things. And that’s really how. So you’ve been doing this now and leading with that intent and selling, if you want to call it selling with that intent, building relationships. Where what’s the next? Because I look at that as a mindset shift.

You came out of the Navy, you’re like, okay, what can I do? You start this company, you’re trying to help people. Everything is about trying to help people. I can see that clearly. But then you switch to up by influence, which is a different kind of company. So how did that mindset shift go from a savings angel to what you’re doing now? What was that shift?

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (08:32.398)
Right. Yes.

But yeah, so both of these companies really are or I should say my go to market for them. Both came from the same way. So when I started savings angel, I had no money for ads. I’m just not a broey salesy kind of person. I’m uncomfortable with that. Like, I don’t enjoy that. I don’t like feeling like I have to talk people into things or manipulate people or follow these closing scripts that just feel out of character. I don’t like slamming people’s DMS like I don’t like being, you know,

I’m gonna date myself, Ron Popeel or the Sham Wow guy. Like it just, that feels icky to me. But yet I wanna still grow my business. So with Savings Angel, was give more value to as many people as possible. So my play was that I’ve been in the media more than 2 ,500 times on behalf of Savings Angel. And what do I

MKJ (09:12.309)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (09:31.948)
I don’t sell Savings Angel. I give lots of value away. And then people are like, that guy’s pretty smart. Yeah, some of them, not all of them. Some people are like, I do not care for that guy. And that’s okay. Like that’s, I’m an acquired taste. I realize that. So either you resonate with that and you’re gonna come find me and that’s great. Or it’s just like, next, who’s talking now? Okay, so what’s really interesting is that as Savings Angel was doing pretty well,

MKJ (09:39.382)
Yeah,

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (10:01.504)
my job was pretty passive. Like I just had to show up for media stuff, continue to build the right relationships, obviously looking at our big partners and deepening those relationships all the time. So I had some free time. And so I started serving in our local startup community here in Orlando. I’m originally from the Midwest, Michigan.

But, you in Orlando, I started doing a lot of work with SBDC, military veteran owned small business owners and founders, women owned, minority owned, just any opportunity where I could get on some boards, serve on workshops, all pro bono, 100 % pro bono. Just, it’s not an ask, it’s a give. And what I found is this, Mary Catherine, the same pattern is that when you show up and you’re consistent about how you serve and the value you give,

that you lead with noble intent that initially it feels inefficient, but then you get to a point where you are not able to out give the market. Now, a lot of early stage business owners might be a little afraid of doing what I’m talking about because they’re like, I need sales today. I need money. I got bills to pay. I get you. I know what that’s like. I’ve been there, done that many times over.

How long do you want that to continue? I hope that we can break out of that rat wheel soon. And the path to do so is you just need more high value, high touch relationships. I’m not talking social media followers. Those aren’t bad, but that’s not what I’m referring to. I want you, my friend that’s listening to us right now, to spend more time.

with fewer people, but higher quality people in terms of the potential of doing business together. I’m not talking about worth of a soul. I’m just saying, you know, who are the kind of people you would put on your dream 100 and those are the people you need to start earning time with through generosity. And we’ll talk about how platform is such an effective way to do

MKJ (12:05.668)
my goodness, yes. Now you see, right, mischief makers, can hear, you can understand why Josh and I align so well, because this is exactly, I agree 100%, demand generation versus lead generation. And demand generation is not just generating demand, it’s building relationships. It is giving, it is a slower process, and it’s not a flip the switch. You’re not in here and ads into a funnel, into a webinar, into a sale. You don’t go

from that to all of a sudden stopping that and just starting over and build relationships. You have to transition it because obviously you got to pay the bills. But I agree with you. It’s just a hamster wheel to just keep on that process. It’s going, it’s not going to lead you anywhere. And pretty soon it’s going to dry up pretty, pretty heavily because the native digital coming up underneath, they don’t, they can smell us a funnel. They can smell an ad. They can smell that a mile away. It’s, it’s ubiquitous to them. They were raised with

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (12:55.171)
Yeah.

MKJ (13:06.0)
so they can see it. So if you don’t build relationships, you’re going to be in trouble in the long run.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (13:07.426)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think there’s something to be said for how much noise do you want to be in the midst of right now? Because right now, this is what we know from Harvard Business School, is they said 90 % of top level B2B decision makers never respond to cold outreach or unsolicited sales calls. So right off the bat, you are competing with every lazy marketer on the planet for that 10%. And I’m not just talking about marketers. You’re competing

super cheap labor and now AI at a pace we have never seen before. So listen, case in point, how much time do you devote to paying attention to spammers today? And I’m talking directly to you. How do you like being sold at? For most decision makers I know, they have layers of insulation to protect themselves.

They don’t respond to the spammy sales texts, calls, emails, DMs and ads. They’re too busy, right? Now, again, I think that that probably can work. It’s not my area of expertise. If you’re trying to market it, baby, brand new entrepreneurs. I don’t know. I don’t know.

certainly out of my zone of genius, but I do know that if you wanna work with sophisticated decision makers, you’re gonna have to do something a little bit different and it ain’t gonna be coming right out of the holster with bam, bam, bam, do I have an offer for you? Let’s grab a discovery call or watch my free white paper.

MKJ (14:43.579)
Sorry, that’s just, that’s perfect. Yes, I agree 100%. So now, all right, we could belabor this topic. We could talk on it for a long time. What’s the next mindset shift for Josh? What’s going on? What are you looking forward to? And who do you need to become? What mindset shift do you need to make to get to that level, that different thing, that different whatever? What is that?

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (15:08.782)
Okay, so the big the transformation, this is a little self -serving. I’m going to talk about myself here for a second since you asked. And I hope that, you know, again, this is is helpful for other people that think about their own roadmap. There’s only so much good I can do in the world. I’m limited. I’m one person. I don’t like working 80 hours a week. I’m not going to do that. I love to be quite deliberate with my time. And so one of our core values is democratization and my influence.

I in open sourcing, believe in crowdsourcing, I believe in sharing and spreading the wealth. I believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, right? And so one thing that we’ve been working on, we at Up My Influence, we have worked with getting close to 250 just over the past five years, big ticket clients, VIP level clients. And again, I step in as that chief revenue officer.

You know, we could talk a little bit more about this later, but you know, how we leverage platform, specifically the platform of podcasts in order to build meaningful high level relationships for business development. Okay, so when we’re working on our own account based sales, we’re somewhat limited on impact, right? It’s just all roads kind of need to come through Josh or Josh’s sales team. So that is one path to being able

help the world and my empathy extends to the business owners that are frustrated, MKJ. They just wanna do what they do. They love doing what they do. They love branding. They love copy and content and marketing and or other professional services, leadership, mindset coaching, health and wellness. That’s what they’re passionate about. But then someone said to them,

In order for you to do what you really love, you’re going to have to do a lot of this icky sales and marketing stuff. And you’re going to have to do stuff that falls outside of your values or your comfort zone. I don’t believe it. I think that that is bad advice. It sounds good because it makes it sound like, you could just do this yucky thing and then you can automate it. And then you don’t have to do the yucky thing. Sales is not yucky.

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (17:32.172)
Right, so if we think about it from a perspective where we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to try to convince other people and manipulate them into buying, yeah, it’s a lot of work and I can see why people wouldn’t enjoy that. But if you think of it from a, know, going to, let’s say, think of the best event that you’ve ever been to and you’ve, I’m gonna close the loop here on Josh in just a second, just in you’re wondering here. But let’s say, again, you walk into a room.

and the pressure’s off. Like no one’s thinking about sales. Like everyone’s just relaxed. You know, maybe they have a drink, maybe they have coffee or water, whatever. They’re just milling about, hanging out. Hey, what brings you here? Tell me about what you do. Blah, blah, blah. You know, and I think we’ve all had that magical moment where you get to talking with someone and you’re like, you start to look at them like, huh, I wonder if there’s something we should be doing together. Like it’s that type of energy. That is how

the big leaders do business. It’s organic, it’s authentic, it feels happenstance or it feels like the universe or God’s kind of brought these two people together. That is how the majority of high level decision makers like doing business or getting a word of mouth or something like that. Not anything that is forced. So Mary Cawthon, part of my vision is to keep more B2B solutions providers and business owners in business

so that they don’t have to do the yucky stuff which just burns us out. It’s hard to do stuff outside of your values if you don’t enjoy it and do that day after day after day. You deserve to build a huge network of friends. fact, listen, if you can get to a point where you’ve got two, 300 high level friends, and I mean like a legit friendship, like where it’s not just social media high five in each other, whatever, but like legitimately people.

who really are looking out for you. They believe in you and you believe in them and you send business back and forth and you do good stuff together and you create this one plus one equals 11 dynamic week after week after week after week, it’s game set match. And so MKJ, that is my goal is to create that whisper network with all of these great business owners that just want to do what they love. So what does that mean?

Josh Elledge – UpMyInfluence (19:52.706)
we’re gonna have to spread the wealth. right now, one thing that we’re working on is a true kind of, know, E -Myth next step in the process. And, you know, we’ll be licensing what we do because I can’t reach the whole world on my own, or at least if I do, I don’t know that that’s necessarily a path that I want. I would

Like I said, much rather kind of to my own personality. I’d much rather shine the spotlight on other people. I’m happy to do my part, happy to serve, but I don’t know that I necessarily want to be the next Tony Robbins. I’d rather be the guy that creates a bunch of Tony Robbins, if you know what I mean, right? So yeah, that’s kind of my energy.