Jason Harris is a bestselling author, award-winning advertiser, and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the creative agency Mekanism and the co-founder of the Creative Alliance.
At Mekanism, Jason has helped the agency produce campaigns for such companies as HBO, Muscle Milk, The North Face, PepsiCo, MillerCoors and Ben and Jerry’s.
In 2014, Mekanism led the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign to raise awareness of campus sexual assault. The campaign is currently in its third year.
This past summer Jason published his first book The Soulful Art of Persuasion, already a Wallstreet Journal Bestseller.
Now, let’s hack…
Jason Harris
Highlights from the interview:
- [4:02]: Jason explains how Mekanism is actually his second business, and how the first taught him not to overload himself with too many disparate tasks.
(“Wearing too many hats.”)At the first agency he started, he was doing everything — bookkeeping, management, sales, and more, all on his own. It eventually took its toll on his mental health. He learned that he needed partners and collaborators with complementary skills, to whom he could delegate tasks.
- [8.45]: Mekanism’s first significant client was Sega. The second was Microsoft. How? By offering to work for free.
Mekanism’s team pitched campaigns to large, well-known companies for free, to get those brands into their portfolio. This also gave them the freedom to experiment with out-of-the-box ideas, since there wasn’t any risk for the companies.
- [30:00]:Jason explains his mantra of “never be closing.”
It comes from early in his career, when he’d pitch and either win or lose. He’d get upset when he lost a sale, wondering what he could do differently. Over time, he realized the “always be closing” mentality, with hard-sales tactics, was actually a turnoff to a lot of potential leads.Instead, he became willing to stay in touch and play the long game, rather than trying too hard to get an immediate close.
Resources and links from the episode:
- Get the book: The Soulful of Art of Persuasion
- Jason Harris on Twitter
- Mekanism.com
- Best Business Books
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