Episode #41: Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income
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Links Mentioned
Episode #42 of The Sales Podcast: From Foster Child To Fostering Dreams (Josh Shipp)
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About Josh Shipp
Josh is a former foster child that is now "Helping adults understand teens & teens understand themselves." His mom was 17 when he was born and placed him in the foster care system.
He lived in a dozen homes, suffered abuse, was suicidal but ended up in a loving home at the age of 14.
He suddenly found himself in a loving, caring family.
Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story...
And that became his mission.
Greatest Sales Success
- He realized he owned a job, not a business, when he was building his speaking business and realized if he was going to scale his impact and income he had to create systems.
- It's a mixed blessing being good at something because it's hard for you to let go and let someone do it for you.
Mistakes Business Owners Make
- They don't see money as amoral. When you serve more people and help them improve their lives you'll make more money and that's fine.
- They don't give themselves enough at-bats.
- Once they master their craft they allow themselves to get comfortable.
What Are You Doing Daily To Grow?
- Fear is holding us back. Do what's good for your business, not just your ego. You are qualified. Nobody gives us permission. Put a stake in the ground and go for it. To be great, start with a decent first draft and be sure to only get inspired - not discouraged - by looking at other leaders in your industry. It's more about what you learn than what you earn.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Anytime I'm stuck, need a breakthrough...it always saves you years, tears and dollar bills to hire an expert to help you.
- Become THE choice in the marketplace but set aside your perfectionism and lock up your control freak...but it's hard!
- As you grow, more and more opportunities present themselves but more is not better. Better is better.
- Always ask "How can this work in my business?"
- Don't create your programs in a vacuum.
- Get to know the personas of your prospects.
- Push through your fears. Get around people that inspire you.
- Take action on something that's good for you but scares you.
- Wishful thinking is not a strategy.
What Are You Reading Now?
Links Mentioned
Thank you for checking out this session of The Sales Podcast. If you haven’t done so already, I would love if you left a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It would be extremely helpful for the show!
Episode #43 of The Sales Podcast: Spend One Year Alone On An Alaskan Island, Charles Baird
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About Charles Baird
Chuck is from Pennsylvania, attended high school in Florida, then USAFA with me in Colorado and entered the petroleum industry in 2000 after leaving the Air Force. When he turned 40 he was doing some film-making and adventuring and wanted to take it to the next level.
A modern day homesteader sets out on the greatest adventure of his life. To create a new life for himself, alone, on a remote Alaskan island, for an entire year.
Greatest Sales Success
- Surviving for a year is like being in sales. Every day you have to get up and make it happen.
- He realized we all need to stop being afraid of failure.
- He rediscovered the beauty of relationships. He had ulcers and medical issues after working 80-110 hours a week and he was not happy. After he had four friends die in their 40's from stress he realized it was time to do something different.
What Are You Doing Daily To Grow?
- Working on growing his photography and film-making businesses.
- Leveraging YouTube. He had the #1 video on YouTube one day with over 6,000,000 views.
- Working on Season 2 of "Alaskan Pioneer"
- May expand into podcasting, write a book and may go live on an active volcano.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- No one is going to give it to you.
- The harder you work, the luckier you get.
- Just do it.
- In vest in your passion and you'll do better.
What Are You Reading Now?
Links Mentioned
Episode #44 of The Sales Podcast: He Sells Dirt and Doubled His Sales In 2 Years, Brian Madden
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About Small Business Owner Brian Madden
Brian and his brother, Bob, have been involved in this family business since he was 11 and Bob was 16, so they could put themselves through college. His parents would wake them up at 6 AM on Saturdays and have them pass out flyers in nice neighborhoods and "be polite and sell them something" when the phone rang.
About three years ago Brian got serious about marketing and the results speak for themselves. Hear what he has done to double profits and expand his offerings in a down economy and why he's more excited than ever to go to work each day.
Greatest Sales Success
- Embracing "Personality-infused marketing."
- For example, he did a voice broadcast to his list and started out with
Kids, kids. Daddy is on the phone. Hey, my big brother is out of town and I’m running this sale. Wouldn’t you rather stack firewood when it’s sunny and 70 instead of 20 degrees and snowing?”
- Within 3 days he generated over $8,000 in firewood sales in August when they traditionally sold $0 - ZERO. ZIP. NADA!
- He was nervous. It took two days to write and two days to record a little 30-sec voicemail broadcast. Now he’s grinning. He’s crushing it.
What Are You Doing Daily To Double Your Sales?
- Working on his business and not in it. He spends more time working from home and more time focusing on marketing his business.
- Focusing on direct mail, SEO, PPC and not so much on social media.
- He knows his numbers so he knows how much he can afford to spend to win a client and he focuses on the Lifetime Value of a client instead of the one-time sale.
Double Your Sales Tip
- Just press "SEND."
- He was scared when he did his first voice broadcast.
- He didn’t split test it.
- He just sent it to his entire list of 11,000. (Maybe not the wisest thing to do, but if you don't hit SEND, you'll never grow. It's how I've made it this far.)
- He always has a nice offer and a tight expiration date on his marketing offers.
- People think he's crazy, but he's growing and has embraced the ribbing and the chuckles from friends all the way to the bank.
- It's not hard to do the right thing. Feel it in your gut.
- Four principles:
- Show up on time.
- Do what you say you're going to do.
- Finish what you start.
- Always say "please" and "thank you."
- Keep track of your complainers and win them over with love.
- Hire experts to help you where you are weak so you can focus on your strengths.
What Sales Books Are You Reading Now?
Links Mentioned
Thank you for checking out this session of The Sales Whisperer® podcast. If you haven’t done so already, I would love if you left a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It would be extremely helpful for the show!
Episode #45 of The Sales Podcast: He Grew His Income 660% In 3 Years, Steve Clark
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About Professional Sales Trainer and Entrepreneur, Steve Clark
Steve is a scrapper and an over-comer. Early in his sales career he struggled financially, was dead broke, had his water cut off for lack of payment, was almost bankrupt and has been sued by a competitor who tried to put him out of business. But he has always “reloaded and fired again” no matter the struggle or no matter the circumstance. Perhaps his great asset is that he doesn’t know the word quit.
Greatest Sales Success
- He put together a sales process and went from earning $53,000 a year to $350,000+ in three years.
What Are You Doing Daily To Grow?
- There are no silver bullets. There is nothing new. You have to be out there in the marketplace everywhere. People need to see you.Steve suggests people need to write more. Write a book.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Follow his Dad's advice, “For God’s sake, son, do something, even if it’s wrong." Momentum creates energy. “It’s very difficult to steer a parked car.”
- If you want a pipeline full of leads you must do 6-10 marketing activities every month.
What Are You Reading Now?
Links Mentioned
Episode #46 of The Sales Podcast: Create Inbound Sales Like LibSyn Podcast Host, Mom, & Yoga Guru, Elsie Escobar
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About Elsie Escobar
Elsie Escobar is a Modern Digital Jedi, working in the mystical paradox between tech and holistic living, choosing podcasting as her light saber and juggling being a stay-at-home mom to two. She's a yogic innovator obsessed with aligning with earth based rhythms and the pulse of technology plus helping others do the same.
Elsie is a podcasting veteran and Libsyn's podcaster happiness expert, producing and hosting The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast as well as her long running Elsie's Yoga Class.
Greatest Sales Success
- She started podcasting her yoga classes in July 2006. By becoming an early adopter and not being afraid to blend technology with holistic living, she has created a life she can live on her own terms.
What Are You Doing Daily To Grow?
- Be open to new processes with a mindset of curiosity instead of judgement. Case in point, her email newsletter drove more listeners than anything else, and she fought having one for years.
- Listen to podcasts about podcasting.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Get started. She first recorded herself with a simple digital recorder that was able to record high quality audio and she put it online in her podcast.
- Give away content at first if you are concerned about the quality and if you have a tight schedule so you don't feel the pressure to produce all the time.
What Are You Reading Now
Links Mentioned
Episode #47 of The Sales Podcast: How To Become a Conscious Millionaire, J.V. Crum, III
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About J.V. Crum, III
JV Crum, III, JD, MBA, MS Psy is a serial entrepreneur, roll-up-the-sleeves doer, who leads from the front.
He is a bestselling author, speaker, coach, visionary strategist and media guest. (I like that last gig best!) He is the founder of Conscious Millionaire, LLC and his story can help you reach your sales and business goals.
Greatest Sales Success
- At age 23 he turned his dad's trucking company around and made it into a 6-figure profit his first year. Created their first 6-figure profit in a month within three years and sold the business 18 years later for a huge profit.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Master the follow-up.
- Send hand-written thank you cards.
- Have child-like faith.
- Dream big.
- At the end of every day, review what went right, what went wrong and work on that the next day.
- Include boundaries for your clients, vendors and employees. It's okay to be nice. It's also okay to expect to get paid for your efforts.
- You need to really decide who you want as your client. (Choose who to lose.)
- This applies to your staff as well.
- Pay more and get better people.
- Conscious Focused Action. Most people think Action is the most important but JV says the Conscious piece is the most important.
- Success is not complicated.
- You need to be disciplined.
- Get a one year plan in place in 7 days.
- Go ask the market what they want to hear.
- Survey them. (Keep them short - no more than 5 questions.)
- Rapid Iteration is the fastest way to success.
- Get started. (Funny how we hear that on every interview, isn't it?!!)
- Grow your business by making a difference.
- Take responsibility for growth and improving the world.
- Overcome the Scarcity mindsets.
- Work on your belief system.
- Find that negative belief and pull it out by the roots!
- Ask "how can I serve?"
- Just be nice.
What Are You Reading Now?
I'm reading JV Crum's new book!
Links Mentioned
Episode #48 of The Sales Podcast: You Don't Have To Be a Starving Artist, Samantha Bennett
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About Samantha Bennett of The Organized Artist Company
Originally from Chicago, Samantha Bennett is a writer, actor, teacher, creativity/productivity specialist who has counseled hundreds of artists on their way to success.
The author of the surprisingly popular book of poems, “By The Way, You Look Really Great Today,” Samantha is currently writing “The Organized Artist Book: A Success Book For Creative People Who Want To Be More Organized And Organized People Who’d Like To Be More Creative.”
Greatest Sales Success
- Early 2009, after teaching her process for maybe 15 years after starting in a church basement for almost nothing, she had this cobbled together life then things fell away…projects ended, work ended…and had a huge hole in her life and wallet and thought “Hey, can I do this whole Organized Artist thing?” Bought Infusionsoft right away. “Work from the vision.” Don’t work from where you are. “I needed it to pay for yourself before the American Express bill came. I tied myself to the desk, learned it in a weekend and made it work.”
- "I built a business with my own two hands and I ended up with a business I could hold in my two hands." So get a coach, join a mastermind group, expand your horizons and get help to grow beyond your own capabilities.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Get a coach. You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.
- Not everyone is artistic, but everyone is a Creative Genius.
- Discern the projects that matter most to you.
- Dedicate - commit - just 15 minutes a day to get started.
- “How is part of the invitation.”
- Perfectionism slows us down.
- She used scrivener.com to help organize the writing of her book and it helped.
What Are You Reading Now?
Samantha Bennett at her "Get It Done" Book Signing
Links Mentioned
Episode #49 of The Sales Podcast: Shep Hyken: Why You Should Show Up Early and Stay Late
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About Customer Service and Experience Expert, Hall of Fame Speaker, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Shep Hyken
Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is a customer service expert, professional speaker and bestselling author who works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees.
His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the author of Moments of Magic, The Loyal Customer and the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers, The Cult of the Customer and The Amazement Revolution, which was also recognized as a New York Times bestseller.
He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.
In 1983 Shep founded Shepard Presentations and since then has worked with hundreds of clients ranging from Fortune 100 size organizations to companies with less than 50 employees.
Some of his clients include American Airlines, AAA, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, AETNA, Abbot Laboratories, American Express – and that’s just a few of the A’s!
Greatest Sales Success
- His Mom told him to go get motivated. He went to a Tom Hopkins / Zig Ziglar workshop and started a magic show business at age 12. By age 14 he was making as much as his teachers. He was doing 8-12 shows a week and his parents hired a driver to take him to his shows.
- He flew to Detroit just to meet a guy at GM at 23 years old and got the speaking deal on the spot! (Go big!)
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- His mom taught him to write thank you notes.
- His dad made him call a week early to reassure them…stay late, arrive early.
- His dad told him to follow-up a week later to see how he did and to also prospect to get the siblings.
- Training is an issue. American Express was turning around their customer service and now spends 75% of their training on soft skills.
- The customer is not always right but they are the customer. Treat them with dignity and respect.
- A call center is not customer service.
- Service is not a department, it’s a philosophy that has to be embraced by everyone.
What Are You Reading Now?
Get Shep Hyken's Newest Book, Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 Tools for Delivering the Most Amazing Customer Service on the Planet
Links Mentioned
Episode #50 of The Sales Podcast: Get a Lot of Things Done Fast, BizChix, Natalie Eckdahl
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About Natalie Eckdahl
As a busy Mom of two (and one on the way) and co-Founder of ScheduleMAX.com and BizChix.com, home of the Biz Chix Podcast, Natalie is trying to juggle a million things and is on a quest for the holy grail of “Work/Life Balance” and she says "We are going to crack the code on that one people!"
Greatest Sales Success
- Started Schedule Max in 2010 with her husband. It took a year to really make happen but they stuck it out and are growing nicely today.
- Launched the Biz Chix podcast in three weeks! Had a logo, a landing page and an idea at New Media Expo in early January and within three weeks her podcast was launched. She lined up a string of experts to interview over three weeks and launched. She had 15 done and launched with three so people could actually “subscribe.” This helps with download numbers, too. Over the next two weeks she released daily so iTunes can look backwards every 48 hours to see how you’re trending. Then get reviews and ratings.
Rubber-Meets-The-Road Tip
- Hire a Virtual Assistant. Quit trying to do it all.
- Uses LastPass for Firefox to share passwords so her VA doesn’t have the actual passwords.
- Offer things other than money to your staff and contractors to get them motivated. She offered an iPad and her developers hit a tight deadline.
- Get in a community to help each other grow. (Check out what Wes is launching at the 30-Day Sales Growth Program to help along those lines.)
What Are You Reading Now
Links Mentioned