Johnny Caffaro 00:00
It was cool to be able to, like, start seeing my personal brand grow. But then also myself and my work started growing like, reps would read it reach out to me like, Hey, I'd like to pick up your line, like, can I be able to sit down and talk with you reps, I would never even heard of a company that I was working for beforehand.
Claire Davis 00:40
Okay, so you know, let's be real here for a second, when you're starting to build a personal brand, and you work for somebody else. How did your family and friends react? Did they have a reaction? Were they? Were they skeptical of what you were doing? Were they confused? Were they even talking about it? What was that? Like?
Johnny Caffaro 01:00
Yeah, and I mean, so I mean, most of my family members are on LinkedIn. I don't have any other social platform. And so my, my brother in law was making fun of me, like, Why do you keep blasting yourself? This is like a, this is a business platform. You're just talking about yourself? I'm like, not really just talking about myself. Thank you. And I mean, at first everyone thought it was silly. And everyone thought it was I mean, what are you doing? Even my I mean, I can say it now. But my employer, my ex employer was just like, not happy about me building a personal brand, because you can't be a spokesperson, you can be this, but I was like, I'm not doing anything. I'm just showcasing our product and what we're doing and I felt like a lot of people are gonna judge you, and you have to be okay with like, You're made a choice. And you're gonna continue it. Because if you start listen to the naysayers, I mean, you're gonna stop. But if you have a bat, if you have a backbone and a strong thing, like you have a purpose, you know where you're going. Nothing stopped me. I mean, I thanks, guys. I'm gonna keep still posted. You can like it if you want. I mean, at first, I was just sending the link of every post that I would do to a family group chat. Yeah, just be like, Hey, do you guys want to like this? Like, what do you guys think, and I'd get funny jokes back or whatever making fun of it. But like, in all reality, like it started catching on. And then like my brother, he started going, Oh, this is great. We need to be able to do this and then prefer Oh, shoot LinkedIn page has gotten bigger and bigger, just because he saw the presence of what mine was doing. He's like, Okay, we got to, we got to do something. And so I feel like if you do it long enough, people will follow if you're doing it correctly. And I think that's the cool thing. Because you want to be a leader, you don't want to be a follower. And so if you already have a decision that you're going to do it, keep doing it, don't stop and follow somebody else's lead.
Claire Davis 02:46
I love that. I love that. And you know what, listen, for anybody who's in the field out there, like you already know how hard it is to get in front of our customers right now. I mean, the last couple years has been, you know, every version of a hybrid, dark environment. So just even beginning to start on this train. I mean, already, you're putting yourself in front of your customers by using one of these. And I'm hoping that my iPhone. And truly I think that's that's the way that companies are starting to wake up an endpoint as well, because I see companies even like LinkedIn, you know, deeply investing in the creator community, I see companies out there who are focusing so heavily now on creating these internal brand champions. And it seems to be the way that businesses going, because, look, at the end of the day, we still want to work with people we like. Yeah, and that's 10%. Yeah. And the
Johnny Caffaro 03:43
thing is, like, I think where we need to start adapting as companies and as individuals is that a long time ago, we never really marketed to patients, right? We only really, truly marketed to surgeons, or healthcare providers, or that's the marketing material that we would have. But now like now that everybody is on a social platform that everybody's on LinkedIn, or their mother, their father, their grandma, they're gonna look up their surgeons on LinkedIn, or social platforms and check them out. And if you're a rep or an individual or sales manager, and you're posting something, within like, five square miles, you're gonna get maybe 1000 views on your very first post within that area, let's say in Oklahoma, and people are going to know who you are, right? And so that's going to be huge. Like you said, you can't get into offices as easy. You can't get into clinics as easy. But you can send us you can do a single post, talking about who you are starting the conversation, and maybe 10 surgeons saw that post that day, and then you wouldn't have had any. And so like, that's where you start creating your own brand within your own work environment as well.
Claire Davis 04:45
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It probably encourages other people on your team to sort of take charge as well. Have you seen that? Have you seen kind of like a influence on your team of like, okay, Johnny's do it if Johnny can do it, I'll give it a try.
Johnny Caffaro 04:59
No ABS literally said, I mean, if you look back over the last six months, like my boss, my boss's boss, everybody has started like jumping on the LinkedIn bandwagon. It's been awesome. Because you got to be able to showcase what you're doing right. And it's fun to be able to show, hey, we're at this event, or we're showcasing this or we're doing this. And at first, like people would only like the company page, or they would only share the company page instead of showing what they're doing. But I think everybody, as you can see, like, it's gotten bigger and bigger, and everybody's starting to like, come on, like, my boss didn't even have the LinkedIn app on his phone. You're bringing out I was like, come on, like, let's go. And, but then it was just like after that, like, he was like, I love it. This is great. It's more exposure, it shows everybody what we're doing. And it's it's just, it's not everybody's cup of tea. But if you can be able to get people behind it and show what you're doing is good. I think a lot of people will follow with you.
Claire Davis 06:00
I think so too. I think so too. I think it's a rising tide lifts all ships, but also, you know, it's it's less scary when you don't go it alone. For a lot of my my clients, we talk about building your brand with a partner, you know, you find someone who's also interested in that and you can support each other through it. So I really like that. It's your it's catching fire with your team. I think it's okay. So I don't want to glaze over. Something that you mentioned earlier, which was you were, you mentioned Kuffar. Oh, shoes. So um, so what's what's funny, so I know your story. And when I was working in the O R, back in the day, I remember going into a surgical suite. And at the time, I was wearing heels, you know, I had a nice dress on and I was working and I was working in Roseville, California, and I walked in, and it was my very first case I was shadowing. And they said, okay, here, put these booties on. So I had to poke the heel. booties, because I didn't slip slide around the oh my goodness, what I wouldn't have done to have a comfortable but glassy pair of shoes on that. Tell us a little bit about this Cafaro shoes that you've got going on.
Johnny Caffaro 07:18
No. So I mean, our parents dress us up when we're little bow ties and all that stuff. And yeah, brother really love fashion. And we wanted to keep it up. And, and so I mean, he started the shoe line. He's like Johnny, let's do that. So like, let's create something because we are Italian. And we love our last name. So we wanted to put it on something. And so then I mean, as a DJ, what better perfect industry that we're in, in the medical film, everybody dresses up. But the issue is the comfortable shoes are ugly. I just I think they're hideous, and a no offense, anybody that wears them, but I won't say what they are.
Claire Davis 07:53
I have one, right. It's okay.
Johnny Caffaro 07:57
Then also, like the stylish ones are super expensive. And sometimes they're not even that comfortable. So I'm like, let's create a really stylish, comfortable pair of shoes, something that I'm going to need to wear, because I've had three two replacements that can wear all day. And like, let's, let's start pushing it. And so, I mean, as you can tell on my LinkedIn, I don't really try selling it, I just wear them. And I just I mean, that's how I approach it. But of course, we have our referral page that sells it and does all that stuff. But it's just become more like, all my surgeons are buying it. And I mean, they're supporting me in that aspect. Now we have sales reps buying them. And it's just been a really cool thing to be able to go and Italian design made in Spain, and we have no overhead it's a dropship straight to you. And so it's been really cool, a little side hustle and be able to I mean, I have I mean, if you can tell I've Nikes but I have way too many dress shoes on top of my shoe problem. Let's just put it that way.
Claire Davis 08:52
Okay, who has more shoes in their closet? You or your wife? Lives me
Johnny Caffaro 08:56
by like three times?
Claire Davis 09:00
I believe I believe it well, that you know what I mean? There's nothing more important than developing solutions for the people you're working within
Johnny Caffaro 09:07
yourself. And style. And style. Okay.
Claire Davis 09:11
Yes. And to jump back over to the personal branding that one more time, I really love how you have specific you seem to have specific pillars in your content. You know, you talk a lot about motivation and mindset. You're clearly passionate about wording, your team and you talk about having style in the field, which is important to all of us. I mean, everybody cares, you know how they look. And they want to present themselves as representative of their character, but also look great and feel great doing it. So what you know, what are those pillars that you focus on? Or do do you create content that way with specific?
Johnny Caffaro 09:48
No, I definitely do. So. I mean, I don't I mean, I try to make sure that I hit each content, I mean, periodically, right? So I don't overwhelm one or another. But yeah, I mean, fashion is one of my pillars that I talked about right? And then motivation, I mean things that are getting it like how you overcome, like my hip replacements getting fired from my job driving to California being on a suit on a beach sweating.
Claire Davis 10:10
Oh gosh, you gotta tell.
Johnny Caffaro 10:13
It's I mean, I was working for a tech company, and I just got a hip replacement. And I was out two months, and I get back to work. And like a week later, they said, Hey, we're gonna have to let you go. I'm like, what, like I just had, I just bought a house. I just had a six month old baby just had a hip replacement. I'm like, What am I gonna do? Like, this is insane. And so that's where I started like cave, there's got to be something. And there's an industry where something with the hips because I'm super passionate about what happened to me, and I want to know more. And so I heard Stryker was the best company to work for, I mean, Stryker just kept on coming up coming up. So then I went on med reps.com, like this was 11 years ago, there was no resources to try to find any way to get in with striker. And when my dad was a football coach, and so I'm like, Hey, Dad, can you call any of your guys do you think that are working for striker because a lot of they hire a lot of ex athletes and football players, basketball players. And so he said, yeah, there's a couple guys that I know. So I started the process. And I was interviewing and then they're just they went radio silent on me. And my bills are piling up. I mean, this is like four months out of no job. I'm doing workers comp just to be able to make some money to come in to pay some bills, put everything on credit cards. It was stressful. super stressful. I mean,
Claire Davis 11:33
you're the primary breadwinner? I mean, it's all on your shoulders. Yeah,
Johnny Caffaro 11:37
it was a lot. And so then I hear that the hiring manager is going to be in California. So I did like the crazy ex stalker, and like told my ex wife, hey, listen, we got to get in the car, and we're gonna put everything gas on the credit card. And we're gonna go drive down there just to see if we can get an interview with this guy. Like, I will sit there and do anything. So we drive down there, and I let him Hey, coincident. I mean, California to would love to meet up. This would be great. I don't hear anything for two days. I'm like, Ah, this is this is not what I expected. Usually, it's something could have happened.
Claire Davis 12:16
Yeah. I'm thinking like, I'm so embarrassed. Oh, God, or just like, oh, what? Did he not get it?
Johnny Caffaro 12:23
Yeah. I mean, I just, I felt like I knew he was busy. He was on vacation. Like, I kind of felt embarrassed, because like, you put more money on like, because this is what I needed to do. And I have a strong feeling. And I'm going to do it. And I'm not going to back away from that feeling. And so, on the third day in the morning, he texts me at like, 845. And he's like, Hey, man, sorry, been at Disneyland. Do you want to make it down to my hotel? By 10? We can hang out on the beach. Come on, come in swimsuit, tank top flip flops, let's let's hang out. I look at the clock. And it's an hour away. I'm like, I have to hurry. Go. So I heard Ron upstairs, go put on a suit and tie. And I drive down to the beach and hang out in the hotel. And I'm like, I'm sweating. It is so hot on the beach. I come in a suit and tie. And he was so impressed the fact that I came in in a suit and tie that I would he didn't even know he thought I was there just for fun for vacation. And I was like No dude, I came to meet with you to make sure that I could be able to be face to face because the interviews have stalled. And then the next day I got the job offer and they were relocated me to Washington State. But little did I know a guy interviewed with Spencer right after and he had seven years of medical experience. And he had a tank top and flip flops and shorts on. Right showed how much more I wanted that and wanted to be there. So when people say like I don't have medical sales experience, or I don't have experience to get into the industry, you don't need it. I mean, like if you show the person how bad you're willing to work and how bad you're willing to just get the job. They know you're gonna be a hard worker once you have the job. Yeah, so that story really projected and changed the whole career my life I mean, not just career my life but like showed me like what I had deep inside me to succeed and like prevail because I had nothing to fall back on. After that. If I don't get that job, back to med reps.com I guess
Claire Davis 14:22
all the chips were in I love that story, Johnny, you know, I just feel like there are so many ways to stand out. You know, in time and time again, you show us that whether it be online, whether it be in person, whether it be in the O R, you know, being relatable and going that extra mile wins. It can win you know and so, you know for anybody listening, I hope that this really encourages you to see you know, Johnny is the proof of you know, if you really want something and you can find a way to connect with those decision makers in a different way to get out in front of that train and make yourself be seen, you know, opportunity awaits for those who help themselves stand out. And I think you've done it. I think you've done it over and over again.
Johnny Caffaro 15:14
Yeah, I mean, if I didn't keep posting stuff like that, we wouldn't ever connect it or we wouldn't. We wouldn't be on this podcast right now. And so you are gonna stand out. I mean, listen, you're gonna get haters, you're going to get the the naysayers but like, I've just got to be able to have your own voice in your own head, say like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to keep going. Because, like you just said, when you create that powerful brand, and everybody knows who you are or what you represent, and it builds trust, that builds dependability, reliability, then it's gonna go a lot longer for you, not just in your personal life, but in your career and everywhere else, because you're building more confidence in yourself as well. Because when you have success through your personal brand, you're saying, I want to keep going like this stuff. Great. Like, let's
Unknown Speaker 15:56
go. There's no better place to do it than on LinkedIn. Right, exactly. That's the only place you want it. So positive over there. I
Claire Davis 16:03
feel truly blessed being on there. So listen, Johnny, I mean, I know that you are all about relationships and positivity. So if somebody wants to follow you find out more about you find out more about kuffaar shoes, where would you like them to seek you out and connect with you online? Yeah,
Johnny Caffaro 16:21
LinkedIn. I mean, just search my name on LinkedIn love to connect, help out anybody possible and then confero shoes on Instagram. First shoes.com Is that our landing page and then perishes on LinkedIn. I mean, all aspects, you can be able to get a hold of me, so it'd be awesome.
Claire Davis 16:37
Awesome. Well, we'll make sure that we link all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much for everybody listening here. Johnny, thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. I love talking to you. And I know that the impact that you have, the positivity you're putting out there with your personal brand is just contagious. So thank you so much for being with us today.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
