June 23, 2026

ATTITUDE IS YOUR ADVANTAGE: WHY A SMILE CHANGES EVERYTHING

Show Notes
Transcript

THE JEREMY HANSON PODCAST ATTITUDE IS YOUR ADVANTAGE: WHY A SMILE CHANGES EVERYTHING SEO / AEO / GEO PACKAGE

What if the single most profitable tool in your business costs absolutely nothing? In this episode of The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Jeremy makes the case that your attitude, and specifically your smile, is the most underrated competitive advantage an entrepreneur can own. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of running service businesses, standing in driveways, and sitting across the desk from customers, Jeremy breaks down why people buy you before they ever buy your product, and why the way you make people feel quietly decides whether the door opens or stays shut.

This is not a soft motivational pep talk. It is a hard-numbers argument for warmth. Jeremy walks through the research that should be printed on the wall of every business in America: the Princeton finding that strangers judge your trustworthiness in about one-tenth of a second, with more time only increasing their confidence in that snap judgment. The PwC customer experience study showing customers will pay up to a sixteen percent price premium for an experience that feels good, that about thirty-two percent will walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience, and that nearly three out of four people want more human interaction, not less. The Bain and Company research, published in the Harvard Business Review, showing a five percent lift in customer retention can raise profits anywhere from twenty-five to ninety-five percent, while acquiring a new customer costs five to twenty-five times more than keeping one. And the Gallup finding that managers account for at least seventy percent of the variance in team engagement, with one in two employees having left a job just to get away from a manager.

Along the way, Jeremy shares the story of a furious homeowner turned into a top referral source by thirty seconds of warmth, explains why a solo operator is the brand, lays out the difference between being a thermometer and being a thermostat, and gives entrepreneurs a thirty-second pre-meeting ritual to choose their energy on the hard days. He closes with a simple challenge: tomorrow morning, before you open the doors, decide that your smile is your foundation and your attitude is your influence, and then watch what happens. This episode is built for founders, small business owners, freelancers, service-business operators, salespeople, and leaders who want a competitive edge that costs nothing and compounds for a lifetime.

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People often ask whether attitude really matters in business or whether it is just feel-good advice. The honest answer is that attitude is one of the few advantages available to a brand-new entrepreneur on day one, and the research backs it up. Before a customer evaluates your pricing, your warranty, or your years in business, they have already formed a gut-level judgment about whether to trust you, and that judgment forms faster than most people believe. The way you make someone feel in the first moments of an interaction sets the frame for everything that follows.

Another common question is why a good attitude pays off financially rather than just socially. The reason is that experience drives both price tolerance and loyalty. Customers will pay more for an experience that feels good, they leave quickly when they feel disrespected, and keeping an existing customer is dramatically cheaper than winning a new one. A warm, respectful experience is therefore one of the highest-return, lowest-cost investments a business can make, and it shows up directly in retention and referrals rather than as a line of expense.

Listeners also ask how to maintain a good attitude when running a business is genuinely hard. Jeremy's answer is that attitude on the hard days is not a feeling you wait to have, it is a decision you make and let your body catch up to. He recommends treating your energy as a standard you set rather than a mood you chase, and using a short pre-interaction ritual to choose that energy on purpose.

attitude in business, why a smile changes everything, entrepreneur mindset, first impressions, Princeton 100 milliseconds study, trustworthiness, customer experience, customer experience statistics, PwC customer experience, sixteen percent price premium, customer retention, Bain and Company retention, Frederick Reichheld, Net Promoter Score, customer loyalty, cost of customer acquisition, Gallup employee engagement, seventy percent variance, leadership, emotional contagion, thermostat versus thermometer, small business advice, service business, service business advantage, daily customer contact, trades, contractor, cleaning business, pressure washing, founder mindset, freelancer, solopreneur, sales, word of mouth marketing, referrals, customer service, facial feedback hypothesis, positive attitude, professional reputation, Jeremy Hanson, The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Built Different newsletter, competitive advantage, business growth, profit and loss, how you make people feel

CREDITS

Host and Creator: Jeremy Hanson Show: The Jeremy Hanson Podcast Network: Fuzzy Life Entertainment Produced by: Fuzzy Life Studios Website: jeremyhanson.pro Newsletter: Built Different (jeremyhanson.pro) Episode Sponsor: Cash App Cash App Offer: Use code CASHAPP10 for $10 added to your balance for new customers; send at least $5 to a friend within the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash App Link: [INSERT CASH APP UNIQUE TRACKING LINK] #CashAppPod Disclosure: As a Cash App partner, Jeremy Hanson may earn a commission when you sign up for a Cash App account. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures.

Q: What is the main idea of this episode of The Jeremy Hanson Podcast? A: That your attitude, and specifically your smile, is one of the most valuable and most underrated competitive advantages in business, because people buy you before they buy your product, and how you make people feel decides whether opportunities open or close.

Q: How fast do people form a first impression, according to the research Jeremy cites? A: Princeton researchers Willis and Todorov found that people form impressions of trustworthiness, competence, and likability in about one hundred milliseconds, or one-tenth of a second, and that more viewing time mainly increases confidence in that judgment rather than changing it. Trustworthiness showed the strongest correlation.

Q: What customer experience statistics does the episode use? A: It cites PwC research showing customers will pay up to a sixteen percent price premium for a great experience, that about thirty-two percent of customers would leave a brand they love after one bad experience, that seventy-three percent say experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions, and that nearly seventy-four percent want more human interaction, not less.

Q: What does the episode say about customer retention and profit? A: It cites Bain and Company research, published in the Harvard Business Review, that a five percent increase in customer retention can raise profits by twenty-five to ninety-five percent, and that acquiring a new customer costs five to twenty-five times more than retaining an existing one.

Q: What is the leadership statistic in the episode? A: Gallup found that managers account for at least seventy percent of the variance in team engagement, and that one in two employees have left a job at some point to get away from a manager, which is why a leader's attitude sets the emotional temperature of the whole team.

Q: Who should listen to this episode? A: Founders, small business owners, freelancers, solo operators, service-business owners, salespeople, and leaders who want a low-cost, high-return competitive edge rooted in how they treat people.

Q: What advantage does the episode say service businesses have? A: Service businesses are face to face with customers every single day, which is access most companies pay heavily for and rarely get. Every job is another at-bat to make a strong impression, and attitude is the one variable a service operator can control on every job, even when the weather, the equipment, and the customer's mood are not in their hands.

Q: What is the thermometer versus thermostat idea? A: A thermometer only reflects the temperature of the room, while a thermostat sets it. Jeremy argues entrepreneurs should be thermostats who decide the emotional temperature of an interaction instead of reacting to whatever mood walks through the door.

Q: What practical challenge does Jeremy give listeners? A: Tomorrow morning, before opening the doors or answering the first email, make one decision: that your smile is your foundation and your attitude is your influence. Walk in with your shoulders back, look people in the eye, and treat them like they matter, then watch what changes.

The Jeremy Hanson Podcast episode on attitude as a business advantage. Jeremy Hanson on why a smile changes everything in business. People buy you before they buy your product. First impressions form in one-tenth of a second. Customers pay a sixteen percent premium for a great experience. Thirty-two percent of customers leave after one bad experience. A five percent retention increase can raise profits twenty-five to ninety-five percent. Managers drive seventy percent of team engagement variance. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Service businesses are in front of customers every day, and attitude is the one thing you control on every job. Your attitude is the cheapest, highest-return investment in business. Jeremy Hanson entrepreneur mindset and leadership advice. jeremyhanson.pro and the Built Different newsletter.

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WEBVTT

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Welcome to the Jeremy Hansen Podcast. Attitude is your advantage.

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I want to talk about why a smile changes everything.

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What would you think if I told you that this

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single most profitable tool you'll ever own costs absolutely nothing.

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It's not a funnel, it isn't a CRM, it's not

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AI or some fancy degree. It's not the perfect closing

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line or the perfect script. It's your attitude, and more specifically,

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I want to say, it's your smile. Now, some of

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you are already leaning back in your chair, you got

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your arms crossed, and you're thinking, Jesus, come on, Jeremy,

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this isn't going to change my revenue. And you're right,

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because a smile by itself will not build your business,

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but it may decide whether anybody wants to build one

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with you. Most people just fail to understand that before

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a customer buys your product, before a client signs your proposal,

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before an investor wires a single dollar, they buy something

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else first, and that's simply you. They buy you, and

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your attitude is the very first thing in front of them.

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I've spent more than twenty five years on job sites

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and in front of different customers and I've run service

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businesses and I've knocked on doors. I've stood in driveways

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at seven in the morning, completely exhausted and sore, behind schedule,

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with a customer who was pissed. I've also sat across

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the desk from people deciding whether they need to trust

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me with their money, maybe their home, their.

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Project, their reputation.

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And I've been the customer myself, choosing between companies that

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were basically identical on paper except.

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For one thing.

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One of them actually made me feel relatable, like a person,

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and the other made me feel like I was just

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a transaction. I always remembered which was which, and I

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always went back to the one that made me feel

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like I mattered. Now one of the many lessons to

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me that's just been hammered into me over and over.

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You know, every single year in business, in every economy,

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literally in every business that I've ever touched, the smile.

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Your smile is the framework that sets everything else up.

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Think about it like building a house. Okay, you don't

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start with paint colors, you don't start with the furniture

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in the house. You start with the foundation. Everything you

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ever put inside that house is resting on the foundation

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that you built first, and your smile when you show

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up is the foundation. Your attitude is the influence, and

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everything else you're trying to build, the brand, the revenue,

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the team, reputation, it gets stacked right on top of

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those two things, the foundation and the influence, because people

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are not going to remember everything you said just it

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won't happen, but they will remember, with surprising accuracy, exactly

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how you, as a person made them feel, and how

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you make that person feel determines whether or not that

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door opens or gets shut. I'm Jeremy Hanson, and today

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we're going to talk about the cheapest, most underrated competitive

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advantage that you have in business. Let's get started.

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Welcome to the Jeremy Handsome Podcast.

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So chapter one, I want to say, I want you

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to understand that people decide way quicker than we're meant

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to believe.

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It's just pam fast.

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So there's some science behind this, and it gets uncomfortable

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for people who think that they people need to learn

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your trust slowly. Okay, it happens through hard work and proof, yes,

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But researchers at Princeton ran a now really famous series

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of experiments on first impressions. They flashed photographs of strangers

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and faces in front of people for literally a tenth

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of a second, one hundredth of a millisecond. That things

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like that less time than it literally takes to blank.

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And this is what they found. In that tenth of

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a second. People had already formed a judgment about whether

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that stranger was trustworthy, whether they looked competent, whether they

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were even likable. Now, you'd think that more time would

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change the verdict. You'd think, so right, give somebody a

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full second, give them five seconds, give them a full

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minute to study the face.

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It didn't.

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It didn't change the judgment at all. More time only

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made people more confident in the I guess you'd call

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it a snap judgment. More time only made that snap

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judgment more confident that they had made the right one.

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And all of the traits that were measured, what do

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you think was the fastest and strongest? What do you

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think it was? Trustworthiness? Now, if you're an entrepreneur, think

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about that again. Before you have said one word about

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your company, before you've explained your pricing structure, or if

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you have a warranty, or how many years you've been

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in business, or how many five star.

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Reviews you've had.

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The person that you're talking to has already filled some

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gut level reaction report on whether.

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Or not you can be trusted.

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See you walk into the room and bam, that's literally

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you've already scored.

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You pick up the phone.

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They're reading your tone that you're talking in In the

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first sentence. You show up at the job site or

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at a meeting, maybe a networking event, whatever it is,

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the foundation is being poured in the first breath. Okay,

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I want you to picture two contractors and they're bidding

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the exact same job, same same everything, same scope, same materials.

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Their numbers are within a few dollars of each other

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on paper. It's literally a coin flip. Okay, one shows

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up five minutes late, doesn't make eye contact, you know,

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talks at the homeowner instead of talking to them.

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And I know some of.

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You have felt like this, like this as is an inconvenience.

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Well, they pick up on that. They feel that.

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Now the other one of these guys, they show up

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on time, They look at the homeowner in the eye,

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smiling and listening, and they treat them like the most

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important customer.

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That they have that month. Now who gets the job?

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The truth is the bunny side the work side. It

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didn't really matter because it isn't even close. The second

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guy can often charge more and still.

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Get the job.

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Okay, because at some point the homeowners stop buying the

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work and started buying the feeling of being in that

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person's hands instead of the other. The price quit being

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the deciding factor the minute that the foundation was poor.

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What did you think about that for a second? Because

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that is really powerful. So I guess you have to

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ask yourself.

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The question isn't whether you get to make a first impression.

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You don't get to vote on that. You don't. It

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is what it is.

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It's happening, whether you participate or not. So the real

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question becomes, then, well, because it's going to happen, what

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are you putting into it? Are you walking in carrying

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the weight of the whole morning or everything that's going on?

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Is that on your face? Maybe an invoice that didn't

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get paid, or maybe an argument that you had, whatever

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it is, because humans can read that in less than

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a tenth of a second. Okay, this isn't just fluffy

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crap we're talking about it. This is real stuff.

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Kay.

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If you prepare right, that's literally you taking control of

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that one chance, that one window that you actually have

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the most leverage over with the least time involved.

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You see what I'm saying. It's so important.

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And people, a lot of people, I have met a

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lot of people that think that this type of stuff

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is crazy.

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But this is scientific stuff. It's real. You see in

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chapter two.

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I want to talk about this because I believe that

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your attitude, how you show up, the look that's on

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your face, those things are all contagious, all of it

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because emotion spreads, and it spreads like fire. Humans scientifically,

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genetically are wired to mirror the emotional energy that's put

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in front of them. You walk into a room tense,

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the room tenses up. You guys have been there. You

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walk in irritated, They're a little bit angry, and people

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start getting guarded.

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You walk in carrying a chip on your shoulder, and.

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Suddenly everybody around you becomes a little bit defensive. But

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they really can't tell you why. But I want you

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to flip that. I want you to think about this.

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You walk in warm, you walk in genuinely glad to

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be there. You walk in with your shoulders back and

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an easy smile, and people relaxed, their guard goes down,

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their defenses just poof disappear. They get more open, and

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they get more cooperative, and they're more willing to say yes.

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I have felt this happen, and I have watched this

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happen more times than I can count. Okay, I've had

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a customer come out of their house already upset. Who

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knows what something went wrong? Maybe it was the time

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that we were there, a scheduling mix up, a misunderstanding

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about scope of work. Whatever, it was a bad experience

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with the last company.

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Who knows.

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They are loaded for a fight before I've said a

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single word before anything. And when you meet that with warmth,

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you know, a smile on your face instead of defensiveness,

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When you greet them like a human being and you're

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genuinely happy to help them instead of a problem that

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you feel like you have to manage, you can almost

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watch the tension just drain out of their shoulders, and

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you can watch it in real time. Now, I'm not

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saying every time. Okay, I'm not gonna sit here and

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tell you something that's not true, some fairy tale. You

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know some people, and I've learned this, they could be

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business owners they you know, entrepreneurs, They could be you know.

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The average Joe whatever.

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Some people are so determined they have the willpower to

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make sure that they have a bad day and.

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Nobody's talking them out of it.

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But often this happened so much it becomes impossible for

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me to ignore.

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Okay.

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I remember this one job in particular. You know, we

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pull into this house. Owner came out already pissed.

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Okay.

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The previous company hadn't shown up, twice, left her hanging,

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never called.

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Okay. By the time we got there, she was ready

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for war. Okay. She actually I think she had her speech,

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you know, like ready to go.

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She was absolutely done with the excuses and the bs,

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and she felt like she was wrong.

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Okay.

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I didn't argue with any of it. I didn't get defensive.

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I just looked at her and smiled, like, sorry, you've

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had a really tough time with this. I'm tell you what,

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I'm gonna fix that today. It you literally watched something

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drain from that gal, something shift that crossed arms just

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kind of like came down a little bit, like the

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shoulders came down. The redness in the face just kind

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of went away. The speech that she been rehearsing, like,

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you know, almost barking at me, just kind of dissolved.

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And by the time we were done, she wasn't just satisfied.

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She turned into one of the best referrals that we've

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ever had. She sent us neighbor after neighbor after friend

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and what's weird think about that had nothing to do

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about pricing. That's not what changed her mind. It was

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nothing about how we showed up with this equipment or

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that equipment.

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That was nothing.

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What turned a furious customer into literally our walking advertisement

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was thirty seconds of being met with a little bit

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of warmth and understanding instead of a wall of defensiveness.

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So why does it work? The truth is.

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Every human being that you will ever do business with

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wants the same three things. Your customer wants to feel

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like they're seeing. Your customer wants to feel respected and

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their stuff, and they actually feel like they want to matter.

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They don't want to be some number. They want to

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feel like they're somebody. That's what they want. See them,

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respect them and make them feel like they actually matter

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and their home actually matters. Whatever you're working on their stuff. Now,

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a smile. If you're wearing a smile, when you show

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up there, that means I see you, You're welcome here

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with me, and I'm glad that we're talking. And your

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attitude says I'm going to make this experience way better

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than you expected this to happen, especially with customers that

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are already angry. And that's it. That's that's the secret

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right there.

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Now.

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This is available to brand new entrepreneurs with no money,

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no reputation, just as much as it is to the

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biggest company in the world. In fact, I would say

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this is one place where the little guy can outcompete

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the giant day after day after day after day. If

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you're a solo entrepreneur or a freelancer or a one

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man shop, an entrepreneur who is the company, please pay

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some extra attention here because you don't get to hide

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behind your brand because you are the brand. Every single

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interaction is the company you. Okay, you're the face that

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the customers see. Your attitude isn't part of the customer experience.

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It is the customer experience. You know, most people are thermometers.

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They just read the temperature of the room and then

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then reflect it right back. If the room's tense, and

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when they get tense. If the customer feels a little cold,

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well then they get a little cold. But somebody that

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is really leading their business forward, they are the thermostat.

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So you don't read the temperatures. You're the weather. You're

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the ones that set it. You walk into a cold

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room and you decide the temperature is going to be

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blah blah blah, and the room moves towards you instead

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of moving towards the.

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Room you see.

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Deciding to be the thermostat is one of the most

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quiet and powerful choices that any entrepreneur can make. Most

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of your competition is walking around as the thermometer, getting

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jerked around by whatever mood happens to come through the door. Okay,

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service business people, listen, this is our entire game. If

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you run a service business, you know, cleaning and pressure washing, restoration, landscaping, plumbing,

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contract or whatever, any trade where you show up and

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stand in front of your customer, you have a actual

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advantage that most companies.

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Would kill for. You are face to face with.

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People every single day, not just through a screen, not

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just something that they can scroll right past. You're in person,

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You're on their property, you are in their world. Most

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businesses spend a fortune trying to buy that kind of access,

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and they still never get it. The advantage we have,

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we get it handed to us. Every job, every driveway,

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every roof, every porch, every walk through is another chance

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to have it at bat. It's another chance that you

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have to make somebody feel like they made the right

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decision on any given day. I can't control the weather, okay,

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I can't control whether my equipment is going to work right.

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I can't control what kind of morning my customer has

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had before I pull in.

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But here's the thing.

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I always am in control of my attitude.

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I carry my attitude to the door.

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One hundred percent of the time because it's one hundred

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percent mine every single day, every single job. So why

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would you ever waste those opportunities? Because the truth is,

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if you're dealing and you're going against great, big companies,

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you may not be able to beat them on price.

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That's the truth.

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I don't even think you should be trying to beat

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them on price. You can't beat them on ad budget,

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you know you can't. You can't beat them on years

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in business most of the time, but you absolutely can

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beat them on how it feels to deal with you

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persus at the company. Okay, the data all points to

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this as being one hundred percent accurate. My experience says

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this is two hundred thousand percent accurate. Now, speaking of that,

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I want to talk about something that helped me. Okay,

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just let me stop here for a second. This is

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something that a lot of people are quietly avoiding, and

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I'm talking about bitco. But here's what I, after a

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lot of research, have come to believe about it. Most

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folks aren't actually confused by bitcoin. They just assume they're

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supposed to be. They hear that word and something in

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their heads says that it's complicated, or it's not for me,

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or it's for the tech people, and they never really

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go any further, They never look any closer. But the

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thing and the thing itself are two different animals, because

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underneath it all, it's a lot simpler than you've been

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led to think. And the name that's made it click

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for a lot of people is cash App. Bitcoin is

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often talked about as an investment.

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But it was built to be used, and it was

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built to be used.

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With cash app, you can actually do that, send bitcoin instantly,

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pay at local square businesses that accept it, or move

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it to your own wallet whenever you want. It works

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more like real money and less like something that's locked

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into an account. So for a limited time, new customers

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can get ten dollars added to their balance and all

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you have to do is use code cash app ten

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when you sign up, and don't forget this part. Send

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at least five dollars of that to a friend in

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the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash app is a

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financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by

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cash Apps Bank Partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand.

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For additional information, see the bitcoin disclosure at cash dot App,

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Forward Slash Legal, Forward Slash Podcast. That's cash dot App,

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Forward Slash Legal, Forward Slash Podcast. Just think, if you

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go and you sign up and you use the code

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cash app ten, you can get ten bucks for free.

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How often does that happen?

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00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:04.240
And go check it out cash dot App, Forward Slash

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00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:08.079
Legal Forward Slash Podcast and use code cash app ten.

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Now let's get back to this.

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I think this is a really really important podcast because

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in chapter three I want to talk about the economics

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of just being pleasant. Okay, so let's talk about money.

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I don't want you walking away from this thinking that

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attitude is just some whohum nice idea. I want you

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to understand that this is a line item on your

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profit and loss statement. Okay, now, PwC ran one of

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the largest customer experience studies that was ever done thousands

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of consumers across multiple industries, across multiple countries, and the

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numbers literally should be printed on the wall in every

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single business in America. They found that customers will pay

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up to sixteen percent premium sixteen percent more for the

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exact same product or service when the experience of buying.

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It feels good. I want you to think about that.

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Are you leaving sixteen percent of a premium of money

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that you could get just because you don't feel like

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being pleasant? What would sixteen percent profit due to your margins?

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You know, I've met so many entrepreneurs and they kill

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themselves because they're squeezing pennies or you know, trying to

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do the little things to get one, two, three percent.

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And here's a proven study that shows that you can

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get sixteen percent more. It's sitting right there just because

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you were pleasant. This isn't some fringe preference. In that

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same body of research, seventy three percent of people said

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the experience of doing business with you is the key

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factor in whether they buy from you at all. Okay,

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00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:24.240
right up there next to price and product cup quality. Now,

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nearly half of customers said friendly welcoming service is the

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single thing that defines.

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A great company in their own mind. Think about that

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for a second.

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Friendlier than competition, beat newer technology than the competition. Given

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the choice, people picked the warm company over the high

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tech company over and over and over again. That same study,

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on the other edge of the blade, too, about a

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third of customers are thirty two percent said they would

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walk away from a brand they love, a brand that

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they're loyal to after just one bad experience. One not

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a pattern, not a string of failures, just one bad

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interaction where they felt disrespected or rushed, or if they

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felt unimportant. A third of them, who's thirty two percent

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gone for good. In that same research, when companies were

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automating everything and racing to remove the human from the transactions,

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what did people say they actually wanted.

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Think about this.

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Nearly three out of four said they wanted more human interaction,

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not less. How many times have you gotten on the

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phone and you get to a recording and you're like

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I just want a human. I just want a human.

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And you can't.

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Well, please give us more information so we can direct

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you to the right You know what I'm saying. That

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is an opportunity of a lifetime and it costs nothing

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but your attitude. Now layer that on what we already

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know about retention. Okay, there is landmark research out of

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Banning Company. It was in the Harvest Harvard Business Review.

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This is done by the man who invented the net

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ATTITUDE IS YOUR ADVANTAGE: WHY A SMILE CHANGES EVERYTHING

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