The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software and VETRO FiberMap.
Joe Coldebella:
This episode of the Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software and VETRO FiberMap.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. I’m your host, Joe Coldebella, and we are at Calix ConneXions 2023 in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Joining me is Seth Thompson, a strategic sales leader with Calix. Seth, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Seth Thompson:
Thank you. I’m excited to be on here.
Joe Coldebella:
Hey, it’s really good to have you on as well. You do a lot of great things. Before we dive into your story and the things that you do at Calix, I would love to talk a little bit about this event. Calix does an exceptional job. What is some of the feedback you’re getting from the operators here?
Seth Thompson:
So this is my third ConneXions. Every year it gets better, but I think the big thing is just excitement, right? It’s hard. You get in here and feel the energy and start seeing all the cool things that Calix is doing that maybe you’re already doing as an operator. But someone may be doing it differently or ways to get better.
And it is great to see all of the new stuff that’s coming out. And then I think just in general, you feed off that energy from all the other people that are excited too. So it’s been a really good thing. And from a Calix perspective, as we run into these last few months of 2023 and then into the new year, it really sets up our customers and ourselves to keep moving things forward.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah, it’s great. What I really love about it is that it’s an innovation and success conference, and that’s really why everyone’s here. To your point, people see what other people are doing. People are in the halls and going to different sort of talks, and they’re really learning a lot so that they can apply to their business.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. Well, you think about it this way too. So many of our customers are for the most part confined to the area that they serve, and that’s their bubble. Those are the people they talk to. So whenever they get the opportunity to be, whether it’s here at ConneXions or any of the other large conferences, your bubble gets bigger. So you get more perspectives, and you get to think about things differently. You get challenged sometimes too, and that’s a good thing.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. And one of the things that it’s great is that you’ve got a great tool set here. Everyone’s got these great tool sets. But ultimately at the end of the day, it’s what’s the benefit of the benefit. So it’s like whatever I learn here, how can I apply it to my subscribers?
Seth Thompson:
100%.
Joe Coldebella:
So just let’s start with a little background on yourself. I always find it interesting how people find their way into the industry. I always think that there’s sort of two tiers. There’s folks that have been around for a long time, and then there’s folks that kind of stumble their way in. What was your pathway to the world of broadband?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, I’m a stumbler for sure.
Joe Coldebella:
Me too.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, it’s interesting because not many people grow up and say, I want to be a sales guy, let alone I want to be a sales guy in broadband. And I did the first few years of my career in a different space in commercial finance, not a finance guy selling the finance stuff. I’ll be very specific there, but actually calling into the MSP and IT world. So a lot of people that are in IT equipment and everything, I was calling on them as customers.
Eventually I’d been in that industry for about five years, and one of those, IT VARs actually reached out about potentially making a move over there. I was at a point in my career where I wanted to get out of that space that I was in. I just didn’t see the future I wanted there. So I made a shift. It was a little bit of, I don’t want to say a step back, but a parallel move to try to be very intentional about what I was going to do.
And I was in Iowa at the time, and that specific company said, “Hey, we know there are a lot of broadband providers in Iowa. The broadband industry’s been great to us. We want you to call into that space.” So I spent the next year just furiously trying to get to know the broadband industry and trying to get to know my customers.
I am a very naturally curious person. I was the kid that asked, “Why, why, why.” And I’m now the adult that asks “Why, why, why.” That helped me at least learn something to where I could hold a relatively intelligent conversation and to get in and really got to love the people in the industry as well.
There are so many good people in the broadband space. Again, I was specifically focused in Iowa, in the Midwest at that point. And eventually Calix reached out to me. And actually, of all things, it was Michael Weening that was the first one that kind identified me from Calix, and here I am.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah, that’s a great story. Would you mind just touching on a little bit? I know we’re going to talk about social media a little bit later, but I would love it if you could share that story.
Seth Thompson:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So for anybody that’s not aware, which is probably many people, I have a very active presence on LinkedIn.
Joe Coldebella:
You do indeed.
Seth Thompson:
I post a lot there. I post a lot of videos, and I have this signature headbang at the beginning of my videos that is coming to be associated with me. So as I came into the broadband space, again, I took that approach, and being very active on there, again, you never know who’s watching that. And I did my best to connect and network with other people in the industry in one way or another
One of these videos or multiple of them popped up on Michael’s feed, and I got a message from Michael. I didn’t know who he was. At that point, I was still very new to the industry. But he said, “Hey, really like what you’re doing? We have some openings in Iowa. You should really consider them.”
I was excited about what I was doing, and again, not totally knowing who Michael was, I said, “Hey, thank you. I really appreciate the good feedback. I’m excited about what I’m doing.” We went back and forth a little bit, and then a month later, the rep in Iowa for Calix at that time, who would go on to be one of my colleagues after that approached me and said, “Hey, are you in love with what you’re doing?”
Again, I told him, “I’m excited about this, I’m good.” And he’s like, “Well, yeah, we’re looking for a guy. Just think about it.” And I said, “Somebody else from Calix reached out to me,” and he said, “Who?” And I said, “This Michael Weening.” And he said, “You should probably talk to somebody from Calix.” So after that, I ended up talking to a few folks, and here I am two and a half, almost three years later.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s a great story because I think that’s the remarkable thing about the time that we live in now, is that in a strange way, we can all jump the line if you do things. Occasionally I’ll get on social media platforms, and I’ll make a comment. Then one of my replies will be from somebody who has millions of followers. And then you’re like, okay. It’s kind of cool.
Seth Thompson:
It’s like instant visibility, right? You’re just like, whoa, I didn’t know that was possible.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah, it’s amazing. But we’ll definitely dig into that a little bit more later in the episode. So you’re at Calix now. What is it that you do?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been here at Calix about two and a half years. In that two and a half years, I have gone through a few different roles. I came on very focused on one of our cloud solutions, support cloud, which is kind of our managed Wi-Fi cloud product. Six months into that role, I moved into a role called the regional cloud manager and really overseeing all of our cloud solutions in the state of Iowa.
So I did that, and then this opportunity came down here, which I’m in now, which was to lead our Kansas account team. So here I am as the strategic sales leader of Kansas. It was a pretty big transition moving down from Iowa and getting used to the new role, new customers over the last six months. But it’s been a very positive thing. Most of my time is spent engaging with our customers in Kansas.
And for the most part, my conversations are more on the strategic business level. We’ve got a fantastic team that supports Kansas. We’ve got a couple of great sales engineers. And we have awesome product specialists on the cloud side. We have a professional services individual, and then we have a customer operations that kind of make sure that we’re able to follow through on all the promises we make on the backend. And that’s made my job and my transition very, very easy. But it also allows me to keep my focus where it should be, which is helping our customers really plan out their next 18 months, two years, five years, and how they get there.
Joe Coldebella:
I watched you talk yesterday about the subscriber experience. That’s really what it’s all about at Calix, for the operators, and literally for everyone in the industry. I think we’re really at sort of a crossroads here. There is definitely a move towards everything moving high speed, and so it’s really truly about them.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. We talk about this a lot at Calix, right? Speed, price, speed, price. That was the method, the marketing for a long, long time in our industry. You especially have the very large national players, big telcos and cable companies that still market that way. But what we’ve seen is that there’s a hunger from subscribers to have a better experience than that.
They want to have somebody that they can feel connected to and a brand that they can identify with in the same way they identify with Apple or one of those brands. And you can do that being a community-based broadband provider. It’s being hyperlocal and providing an awesome experience and making sure things are relevant to your customers when you’re rolling them out and putting them in front of them. So that’s a big part of what we really worked through is how to get away from this speed, price marketing.
Joe Coldebella:
It’s a race to the bottom.
Seth Thompson:
It is. It’s a race to the bottom. And 10 years ago, it was a differentiator because speed was not abundant. Now, in a lot of markets, speed is abundant. You can go get a gig connection from your community-based service provider or from the big provider that’s in your market. So you as the community-based provider are not going to win that speed, price game.
So how do you stand out? How do you differentiate? How do you justify your cost premium? Well, you talk about your investment in the community. You talk about the great things you’re doing for your subscribers that are actually making them identify with you.
I actually have a really good story to connect to this. My brother lives out on the far west side of Nebraska. I tell this story a lot when I present the subscriber experience. I put a picture up of him not knowing that it’s my brother, but it’s him and his family.
Then, I say, “Hey, this is probably your average broadband subscriber. They’ve got a couple thousand square foot home. They’ve got a nice young family there with lots of connected devices. Maybe they stream their TV, and they use Wi-Fi all over.
This particular family has a great experience. They’ve got a community-based service provider. They have Wi-Fi all over. They know that if they call in, they’re going to be taken care of. They’re proud of the community they’re in. And they have such a great experience that every other month when — name your big national service provider — comes and knocks on their door and says they will give you that same seat for 20 bucks less, they’re like, no, we’re good, we’re good.”
Which is when I then drop, I know you’re saying this is a good story, Seth, but it’s not true, but it is, because it’s my brother, and that really happens every two months. Right.
Joe Coldebella:
For smaller carriers, that’s the key. You can’t compete on price because the bigger carriers can crush you. It’s that homegrown experience that’s so critically important.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. And I’ll tell you too, and this is part of the reason that I’m so passionate about what we’re doing at Calix. I grew up in a small town in Iowa. I still consider myself a small-town kid, even though I’ve kind of migrated down to Kansas City. So I can identify with a lot of the things that our customers are going through in the more rural communities, what being disconnected means or what being connected means to these smaller communities, the things you can do that maybe you don’t have access to if you don’t.
That again, if you’re a big national provider, you have no competition. You’re saying, well, I don’t care about this stuff because there’s no dollars for me. Our community-based service providers are making investments that are sometimes 20, 30-year ROIs. There is not a large provider out there that’s willing to make that investment.
Joe Coldebella:
Let’s discuss funding. So in terms of your customers, I know that you’re primarily tier 2 or tier 3 in terms of size.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah.
Joe Coldebella:
Is that something that’s front and center with them, or is it one of those things where it’s not really in the cards?
Seth Thompson:
I don’t think that. In the industry, we talk a lot on our side about tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 to try to classify these businesses. When we talk to our customers, they might not identify that way, but they identify as a smaller community-based provider.
Joe Coldebella:
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Seth Thompson:
When you talk to a lot of our customers, they’re proud of that because of the things they’re able to do that the larger providers cannot. There are places they’re willing to go that larger providers are not, and the agility that comes with that too.
Joe Coldebella:
So true.
Seth Thompson:
I think the funding piece is really interesting. When you look at the growth that’s happening right now, the opportunity that is the next few years, a lot of our smaller providers are looking at this, and some of them don’t know what they want to do. Some of them know exactly what they want to do, but we got to be really clear that we’re in a finite window. There’s definitely a first-mover advantage. That’s a very real thing. And even if you are going to go in and compete, you have an opportunity to go out there and provide a premium experience that’s going to put you in a very good position to do that.
So we have a lot of customers here at Calix that are doing everything they can to take advantage of the public funding that’s out there. That’s both federal programs like BEAD that’s going to be coming out as well as state programs. And they’re using that and obviously their own connections within the finance world to go out and be able to expand their reach, get into different communities, or even upgrade their existing networks to take care of their customers that might not have the service that they need, the underserved.
And then the private side of it is very interesting too. There’s much more of a private funding presence in Kansas than there was in Iowa. So that’s been a new dynamic that I’ve learned to work through here. But again, the companies that have that private funding, they’re still going through a lot of the things. How can we grow our business? How we can do it in a profitable way, in a scalable way. That is really, really big to them.
Joe Coldebella:
I think there’s an opportunity here for the smaller providers to actually jump the line and deploy high-end solutions that make them a better alternative to the larger carriers. A lot of the larger carriers are moving at their own pace. They don’t have, to your point earlier, the agility to make those moves. I think you’re exactly right that this is an opportunity you’ve got to strike while the iron is hot.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, you made a good point there. And I’ll say the voice of the customer has much more impact on many of the providers that we’re working with, which is why we’re rolling out the solutions that we are to help our customers meet those needs here at Calix.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. It sounds like you’re cooking with gasoline, so to speak. As someone who’s entered the industry relatively recently, workforce challenges are front and center for a number of reasons. One is that the industry itself is growing like wildfire, but also, it’s an industry that is sort of back of the house. And a lot of folks who have been in the industry for 30 to 40 years have sort of reached that point where they’re taking a step back and either they’re taking less time or they’re retiring away. So my first question to you is, what do you think we could do to attract more attention to the industry?
Seth Thompson:
I’ll say we’re getting better.
Joe Coldebella:
I would agree. Yeah.
Seth Thompson:
We’re getting better, but it’s because we’re realizing that a lot of the folks that are out there really standing up the first broadband networks are now reaching that retirement age, or where they at least need to be thinking about succession planning. How do we make sure that this business can continue on. Whether you are a cooperative, an independent, or privately funded, that’s a really big deal.
I think it’s interesting too because you look at a lot of the companies that we work with here at Calix, not all of them, but a lot of them are in more rural markets, which just magnifies those workforce challenges. And that is both internally at the broadband provider themselves, but also you look at the contractors that they have to work with, the Calixes, all the other external parties that have to be able to support them as well.
It’s really interesting because I think about just Calix even away from our customers, if you’re outside the broadband industry, you probably don’t know who Calix is. Now, if you’re in the industry, you very likely do. And you very likely either work with us or know somebody that works with us. So attracting attention to a company like Calix can prove challenging if you’re not in the space.
So think about some of our service provider customers that are pillars of their community. But if you’re outside that community, you probably have no idea who they are. You have no idea the great things they’re doing. So it really takes a proactive effort and being very intentional about going out there and trying to bring in young talent and trying to make your operation welcoming to them. And you’re giving them line of sight to, “Hey, this is what this can be if you want to be become part of this and really ingrain yourself as part of this company and this industry.”
Joe Coldebella:
Those are awesome points. And one of the great things about going to this conference and other conferences is hearing the ideas of recruitment. So just two of the ideas that I’ve heard recently, which I thought were awesome. And I think it would almost be great if there was some way to broadcast all the cool different paths that people go.
One is what some service providers are doing is they’re reaching out to the military. So folks that are deciding that they’re ending their service for our country, they’re reaching out to those and creating pathways for folks. So when they step away from the military, they’ve got an opportunity for a job, which is phenomenal. I love it. And I think that’s something we definitely need more of to make it easier for those folks who do serve our country to have an opportunity.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. It’s interesting too, you get into this industry and just because large telecommunications and radio presence in the military as well, some very, very bright minds come out of there and come into our industry. It is a great talent pool for us. The other thing, and we’re putting some energy towards this at Calix as well, is partnering with some of the community colleges and technical colleges that are in maybe some of the more rural communities or places that a lot of times our customers end up pulling talent from. But we are helping them with that.
There’s a recent initiative where I was connecting one of our education services team through one of our customers’ next tech to the local community college there. So we can do things like, “Hey, you’re getting trained up in the telecommunications program. Let’s open up Calix University and give you access to those things. You’re obviously not a Calix customer yet, it’s not anything that you’re paying for, but just to help prepare you for that.” And then, “Oh, guess what? There’s this whole base of service providers that are right around that technical college that are probably running this platform, and you can go in full speed ahead.”
You’re eliminating part of that ramp time, and then you’re also obviously providing a bit of a pipeline for some talent there too.
Joe Coldebella:
Seth, I love that. But as I interview folks, they actually say sometimes that that’s too late. That issues already sealed.
Seth Thompson:
You’re very right.
Joe Coldebella:
So another one that I heard that was really interesting is that in some of these communities they’ll go to the high school football team. And the folks that are not deciding not to pursue college, they say, “Hey, listen, you know what? We’ve got a great opportunity.” So instead of getting a job, they start a career right out of high school, which is awesome.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. We’ve seen that, partnering with the local high schools. One of my great customers in Kansas, I’ll hold them up, KanOkla Networks. They actually partner with a local school there, and they kind of sponsor an esports team. One of their employees is the coach for the esports team. What a great way to start making that connection. And also nurturing the fascination with technology that’s already there, that’s going to encourage people to say, “Well, this looks like a pretty great company. Maybe this is my path. Maybe it’s something I should at least consider if you’ve got a great internship program as well.”
So whether you want to help in high school or maybe you’re going to college or maybe you want to go in right out of high school, you have multiple paths there. And I think what you’ll find, especially with a lot of the providers in these local communities, they’re flexible. They want to work with you because they see the importance of getting good people on there that want to be there and make a difference.
Joe Coldebella:
So I did interview Jill from KanOkla.
Seth Thompson:
Oh yeah. She’s awesome.
Joe Coldebella:
She is amazing. There are so many people here that really want to do great things for their community, and KanOkla Networks is a shining example.
Seth Thompson:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They’re fantastic.
Joe Coldebella:
You’re listening to the Broadband Bunch podcast. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to our sponsors. A big thanks to ETI Software and VETRO FiberMaps.
We are talking with Seth Thompson at Calix ConneXions. So Seth, obviously you’re doing great things with Calix, but you also have a social media presence that I’d love to dip into. I think it’s important because we definitely are in a different time.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, yeah. So like I said earlier, I am very active on LinkedIn. I have been for about five years now. I plan to continue to be. There’s no end sight. But yeah, it is interesting. So this actually all started before I was even in the broadband space. As a young sales professional, I was kind of sitting there doing the normal things that a sales guy does: making the calls, running the meetings, sending the emails, and doing those things. I had found some success doing it that way.
And I just kept thinking like, I feel like I’ve got a good message. There’s got to be a way to go wider. And it just so happened about that time, I had the chance to listen to a gentleman speak, Marcus Sheridan. He came in and spoke at one of our customer events for the company I worked for at the time.
And his whole message was around content marketing. It’s around branding. And this is more from a business perspective. How do you as a business establish this presence and really educate your customers and answer the questions that they have in a proactive way. So they’re not just identifying with you after they’ve found that they have this issue. They’re going to find the answer to identify what the issue actually is. And then show that I have credibility and I can probably help you with the thing that you’re asking about right now.
So that was a fantastic opportunity to meet him and to talk with him. He’s lived through it all, doing it with his own pool company to start. Now he runs a marketing agency as well, but I really took a lot of what he said. He wrote a great book too. That was my guide. So I decided to post a video to see what happens on LinkedIn. I saw the engagement that it got. And I realized pretty quickly that this is something I should probably make a regular part of my sales cadence. And there was a journey there of how do I use this? Is there a way that I use it to drive direct sales? Is it more of a branding exercise?
Joe Coldebella:
So just prior to this, had you done anything in regard to social media at all?
Seth Thompson:
I mean, nothing outside of normal social media stuff. Maybe I would share a company post on LinkedIn or whatever there. But yeah, I went hard there. I started making a video a week, and then it turned into two videos. And there was a period a few years back where I was posting a video every single day. And actually, it didn’t always drive the most engagement.
But that gave me an opportunity over those nine or 10 months to get really, really good at doing video, at least for a sales guy. I was not a marketer. I was very clear about that. But hey, how can I put myself out there? And for a while it was how can I tie sales to this to show that it’s effective? What I figured out pretty quickly was that through a lot of effort, you can probably find ways to do that.
Well, I’m a sales guy. I’m not a marketer. So me putting in that much effort to find that out when I knew it was a positive thing. I just couldn’t necessarily point to, well, here’s this sale, this relationship, or whatever else. What I found out is that it was a branding exercise. It is branding for both the organization that I was representing and myself. When I could be that voice out there speaking to things that my customers care about, if I’ve never met someone before and I walk into a room and they’ve seen some of that content, there’s already a level of trust there. You eliminate the who is this person?
Joe Coldebella:
Or at least recognition.
Seth Thompson:
Exactly right. Yeah. And I’ll tell you, come to a place like this, it is best icebreaker ever. It’s like, “You’re the headbang.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s me.”
Joe Coldebella:
So I know that when you start your videos that you do definitely bang your head. I just wanted to give the listeners a little bit of heads up that Seth and I are far enough apart, so if he does do any gyrations, I’m protected. So I just want to make sure that everyone’s aware that I am safe.
But no, I love it. Twenty years ago, the only folks that were brands were celebrities or folks that were in the spotlight. But now we all are sort of our own personal brands, and its sort of incumbent upon us to make sure that at least we show a face of professionalism. And I think you do an amazing job of that. And you primarily post on LinkedIn or exclusively, right?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. So I’m a terrible millennial. It’s the only social media platform that I’m on. But what I’ve found is that it’s the one that, both personally and professionally, I actually get something out of, right. So it’s great. It’s where our industry is, and I’m a big fan of going where your customers are.
Joe Coldebella:
100%. Exactly. That would be what I would say as well. Live where the folks are.
Seth Thompson:
Exactly.
Joe Coldebella:
We try to post on all of them. But you’re exactly right, this industry lives on this platform. I really love how you handle your LinkedIn page. And I’ll put that in the show notes, so if people want to connect with you, we can do that as well. One of the things that I saw was at the top of your page, growth fanatic. Now, is that for personal branding, Calix, or is it both?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, I’ll say both. I’ll say both. So certainly, I’m passionate about personal development, professional development. And then from the Calix side, right? If you’re trying to grow your subscriber base, grow your impact on the community, or maybe it’s growing revenue, I am firmly of the belief that there’s really no such thing as sitting still. You’re either moving forward or you’re moving backward. And if you’re saying, “I don’t know which one,” you’re probably moving backward at that point.
So I’m very, very passionate about being intentional about your growth because I think there are a lot of people that are just going to go where life takes them. The say, “I’m going to do the things that I think I should do, and the rest will take care of itself.”
I don’t fall into that camp. I’m very much a person that thinks that if you want something, you need to put a plan in place. You need to go execute, and it needs to be longer than a week or a month or a year even. Consider what I’m doing on LinkedIn. If you look at that and the brand that I have now, which like I said, it’s opened doors for me. It’s been a really good thing, but it doesn’t pay me a single dollar.
Joe Coldebella:
But it does have a halo effect.
Seth Thompson:
Exactly, but that was five years of building that. I didn’t know when I started doing it that was what it would turn into. But there’s got to be a little bit of faith and just belief in what you’re doing to see beyond where most people are willing to look, whether it’s a year or five years or 10 years.
Joe Coldebella:
All right. So just if we could take a step back, obviously you’re a hyper poster. But most folks obviously don’t do that. What would you suggest in terms of posting or in terms of interaction on LinkedIn? One of the things that I hear all the time is that the worst thing about LinkedIn is that when someone accepts a connection, they’re immediately hit up with a sales message. And that’s 100% the wrong thing to do. I think that for the most part, people should approach LinkedIn or any social media as a give. And make sure that you’re giving 10 times more than you’re asking, because then when you do ask, people are more open to listening to your message.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, absolutely. I’ll tell you’re exactly right, and I went through that phase. The beginning of LinkedIn I was like, “Do I need to use this as a platform to direct message people or drive meetings?” I found out quickly that wasn’t the path. And that’s why I also say that LinkedIn’s good, but it’s a branding exercise. Someone doesn’t see a video or see your message like, “Oh my gosh, I want to buy your thing. It’s so great.”
It’s about building credibility and giving. So if you do look at a lot of the videos and the posts I put as very focused on the things that a lot of times, it’s answering a question that I got asked from the customer in the last 10 days. And I’m thinking there’s probably a lot of other people that have that same question out there, so why don’t we put it out there?
So for someone that’s trying to get into it, I would say a couple things. Number one, you have to be intentional about it. Until you make it a priority, it’s not going to be a priority. It’ll be the thing that slides off your plate. So I’ll use the example of me again. I would say at times that I’m going to post one video a week. I’m going to do one video and one text post a week. And whatever it was at that time, I made that a non-negotiable. When I went through that period where I was posting a video every day, that was one thing I knew I was going to get done every day.
Joe Coldebella:
Consistency is efficiency.
Seth Thompson:
Exactly right. So that consistency is what’s going to build your presence there and build your brand. If you make one great post, no one cares; and no one probably saw it. People don’t really start paying attention until they see you start flashing across their screen a couple times a week, then maybe more than that. And they see other people that are engaging on that post, and it’s like, “Oh, I know that person. They know what they’re talking about. They’re commenting on Seth’s posts, so maybe there’s some legitimacy to that.”
Joe Coldebella:
So that’s a really great point. I think what people need to do if they don’t want to post as much as you do, they need to do is comment and interact.
Seth Thompson:
Absolutely.
Joe Coldebella:
One of the things you hear from the social media gurus, whoever that may be, you’ve got to engage with people. What can you give to the conversation?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah, yeah, exactly right. I think of LinkedIn, and I have for a long time, as a virtual trade show every single day.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s a great way to put it. I like that.
Seth Thompson:
It’s no different than if you’re sitting up on that panel or you know someone’s sitting up on that panel and you came to listen to it and you have something valuable to add, you have a question to ask, so you raise your hand in the crowd. And then you’re contributing to the conversation even though you’re not a panelist or the person presenting. You’re contributing to it and again, showing your value. If you do that consistently enough, people get excited when they see you in the crowd. They’re going to know that you’re there, and you’re going to make a positive impact.
Joe Coldebella:
There’s a great headline that says, “Dig your hole before you need to drink.” Some folks that use the platform either use it super sparingly until all of a sudden it becomes a necessity for whatever reason in terms of you want to switch jobs. Or if you’re looking for more clients, and then you’re in a panic as opposed to slowly, incrementally building something of value.
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. Oh yeah. Exactly what you said. It’s doing it over time so that when you need that thing, it’s there. You have a resource that you’ve built over whatever amount of time. You have relationships you’ve built over whatever amount of time where you now have people. And you have people that you can connect with and reach out to and say, “Hey, this is what I’m going through. This is what I’m looking for.” And that can potentially turn into something really good.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. And then I also think that you expect nothing in return, right?
Seth Thompson:
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s the thing. And that’s why I say it’s a branding exercise. I don’t expect any sales or new customers or anything else to come to me through LinkedIn. I do it because it’s something I enjoy, and I’ve seen the positive effects of that. And usually those are happenstance things. It’s never anything where I’m like, I’m going to LinkedIn to look for a XYZ thing. People will see stuff enough. And they’ll say, “Well, hey, I know Joe knows about this, or Joe might know somebody that knows something about this. So I’m going to reach out to him.”
Joe Coldebella:
Right. It really is a modern-day Rolodex, right? It’s evolution. It’s amazing how everything is an evolution of something else. It really is incredible. So as we wind up here, Seth, it’s been awesome just chatting with you. When you do your SethTalks, you’re a one take guy, right?
Seth Thompson:
For the most part, yeah. And occasionally I’ll go through phases where I got to do a few. But when I started, it wasn’t that way. But like I said, you do it long enough over time, and if you do watch any of my videos, you’ll see most of them are 90 seconds or less.
Joe Coldebella:
I’m sorry for interrupting, but that is another great point. When you talk to people, obviously we’re here talking for a half hour and long form content is great. But it’s also like if you can do those one-minute hits, or you can do those short little posts that add value to your feed, it’s so important. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. It could just be one point. Sometimes there’s value, maybe sometimes there’s not. But you don’t have to make this five-minute presentation.
Seth Thompson:
I was going through that period where I was making video every single day, and now it’s two or three times a week. But number one, that helped me get good. Like you said, lots of at bats. But it also helped me get that mindset that if this one’s not the best, I’m going to do another one tomorrow.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. There’s a saying, and I’m going to butcher it. But when you’re young, you think everyone is looking at you. As you get older, you don’t care. And then ultimately you figure out that no one’s even looking and paying attention to you. Because one of the things I always tell people is to look at a group photo of people. What does everyone do? The first thing you do if you’re in that photo is that you look at yourself. Everyone else is irrelevant, and that is really life.
Seth Thompson:
Very true. And again, going back to messaging, people won’t pay attention until they hear something that says, “Oh, that is me that they’re talking about. This applies to me.”
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Seth, this has been a fantastic visit. If folks want to learn more about Calix and yourself, where can they go?
Seth Thompson:
Yeah. So obviously hit the Calix website. Once a year, come to ConneXions; it’s fantastic. But then follow Calix on social too. Calix is a company, a corporate entity, that does a fantastic job on social media. And look me up on LinkedIn, Seth Thompson. Or just search the #SethTalks, all one word, and you’ll find a lot of my stuff there.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Thank you so very, very much.
Seth Thompson:
Cool. Thanks, Joe.
Joe Coldebella:
All right. That’s going to wrap up this episode of the Broadband Bunch. Until next time, we’ll see you guys later.
