together. Yes. Well, I see it happening as well. So you're, and thanks for mentioning that, you're
working on the power launch stuff that we've opened up to the world. What surprised you about
it? What have you liked so far? You're already 8% into it. You know, it's such a robust deep dive
into the business. I've thought about it in ways that I hadn't even in this, you know, initial
time that I've spent on it. I've realized what I don't know and what I need to know in a way that
I hadn't realized that before. So it's helpful already. You've already passed the two absolute
hardest assignments. You've already passed by those and that's that preliminary business evaluation
and the revenue growth workbook. We'll revisit that a lot of course, but those two things are
the absolute hardest. And beyond that, the rest starts to really fall into place much, much easier.
So I'm excited for you. Revenue growth is sort of disappointing. What was that? I mean, the revenues,
the current state was like, oh, well, you're on your way. It'll be, it'll be pretty amazing to see
what happens over the coming weeks for that. So with three resources, if, what are three books
or resources you recommend for other visionaries out there? You know, I am a huge proponent of
professional mastermind groups and I'm a member of several. So I would highly recommend a professional
level mastermind group where you pick, you make sure that you pick the right people and they will
inspire you and expand your thinking and give you resources that are just invaluable. As far as
books go, I love that here on my desk, I have, I'll give you four. One of them is mindset by Carol
Dweck. One of them is called the mom test, how to talk to customers. I'd never heard of that one
before. And somebody in my mastermind group recommended that Daniel pink to sell is human.
It's been around for a while. And then Jim quick has a book called limitless. So those are four.
Those are good. Those are awesome. Those are all books that I don't think, I don't think any of
those books have ever made the show before. So visionaries, you are super in for a treat today.
And right after the intro, we'll bring Lauren back on. We'll talk about her intro professionally,
and then we'll go from there. All right. Welcome in to vision pros live with Jackson Calame. I'm
your show host. We will be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders
who are building fantastic visions out there. What's up everybody. Welcome in to another episode
of vision pros live. I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of first class business.
And I'm excited to have Lauren Fisher join us today. We've been building a friendship
and professional relationship now for about three months. I met her as a referral. She'll have to
remind me. I think it was from Carissa quaday. Is that correct? Carissa is amazing. She's sending,
she's sent so many great people through our pipeline now of, of excellent visionaries to
come and share what they're up to in the world. And Lauren is certainly not going to disappoint.
We're going to be talking about inspiring sales teams to embrace challenges and triumph.
Um, with her experience as both a sales trainer, sales manager, and a ski expert. Um, so we talk
about that a little bit too, um, as well, before we dive into our discussion with Lauren, I also
want to make sure to highlight some of the sponsors, um, people that we work with, people
that we've come to love and appreciate, one of which is Sean Lechuga of the wellness shop,
three, six, five, uh, Sean and his wife, Julianne are really big believers in integrative nutrition,
health and wellness. Um, and, and they're coaches and consultants in relation to helping you achieve
your best life. Now, what really struck me about them and their vision was this three, six, five
harmony of life will assessment. And I was like, man, I've never seen not a doctor, not a naturopath,
um, a personal trainer, anybody ask you about my joy, my spirituality, my creativity,
my relationships, my social life, my career education, et cetera. Like this caught my eye.
I was like, wow, these, these people really care about those that they serve on a new level that
I hadn't seen before. I'm excited to see what they end up, um, doing with the brand as they continue
to grow. And I've been super happy to get to know them and their family over the last six months.
Um, seeing Sean take care of his kids sometimes while we're on the zoom calls, uh, seeing the way
him and Julianne support each other. It just says a lot about what they're able to bring to the table
because they're living proof in my opinion of what a healthy life actually looks like.
Then there's Melissa Gray with the law spot, Melissa Gray, um, being an attorney, I was like,
I don't know if I want to have an attorney on this show. I mean, they can be kind of ruthless
and, uh, in your face about things. And I couldn't, she couldn't, I couldn't be farther from the truth.
Um, she knows that law doesn't have to be complicated and she exudes that in the way that she talks to
you. It was really refreshing to find somebody who doesn't want to just go with the status quo
of having these absurd retainers, um, you know, and, and, you know, these abrasive manipulation
tactics almost that maybe that's not fair. I think a lot of attorneys, one of their challenges,
they're in big cities or at least I live in a big city and customers are a dime a dozen. So supplying
demands in their favor and they don't really need to spend any time on you because they've got so
many opportunities at hand on the flip side, those are entrepreneurs. And when I was in that
watcherpreneur stage, the only thing I really wanted was legal zoom and Crocodoc. And then
eventually something like legal shield to protect me, but those systems, again, they're a bit too
whimsical. They don't provide the same type of protection. In fact, uh, not a knock on legal
shield, but when I was utilizing that program, I had an international battle on my hands and they
couldn't help me with the international case. Um, and that was a challenge. So then I found myself
calling other attorneys and it was, you know, I was in this position where I did not have legal
counsel at hand and it actually, it just made me abandon the situation altogether. I never did
close the gap on that opportunity. And who knows, I lose millions. Um, you know, did I lose hundreds?
I don't know. Um, I never got the counsel for it. So Melissa Gray, go listen to that episode. If
you're in a position where you do not have legal counsel, I'd highly recommend checking that out
and getting your bearings, getting your ground underneath yourself, because as wise stewards
of our visions of what it is that we want to accomplish, it's very important that we assess
who can help us build these visions to fruition. Then there's the water project. Um, and I won't
let an episode go by without talking about this particular project, because I never want to take
for granted this bottle of water that I have right here in my hand. I think most of us listening to
it can get water within 10 to 15 feet and it's filtered. It's wonderful. And there's millions of
people in this world who do not even have access to that, let alone all the other amazing equipment
and opportunities that we have. So, um, one of the things I love about the water project is that they
show you the community outcome of your contribution. And much like a crowd funding, you get to see
that it does come to fruition. You get to receive something in this case, you get to see whether
they're building a borehole well or a sand dam or something else entirely. You get to see how many
community members are impacted by it. And just know that when you bring water and a system for
water to a location like this, you are making a generational impact that's going to last for
decades. And that's, that's just cool. If you can do that for one to $5 or 50,000 or 50 million,
um, I'll be excited that we happen to talk about it today. If you can't financially give to this,
you've got too many other pressures going on in life and COVID economics has hurt. Um, then just
share it. That's what I would, that's what I would request is share this. And if you have another
cause that you would like our attention on and drop the cause in the comments, it's not a
competition. There's 8 billion people in this world to help. And if we can do more to facilitate
goodwill and help individuals, then I would love to. So before we bring Lauren on, I actually want
to dive into her personal story a little bit. And she calls, she's called the sales alchemist.
And she's been mastering the sales mindset that turns opportunities into business.
She's personally generated over $100 million in sales in her career. She's a superstar with 30
years and the medical device industry earning over 20 awards for sales excellence. And it's all
about discovering the subtle but powerful mindset secrets. So Lauren teaches these secrets of highly
successful salespeople resulting in extraordinary success. She's led and coached her team from zero
to hero. Many that also became record setting sales professionals themselves. And we're going
to dive in further with her about what this path looks like. I'm going to challenge her a little
bit from my own sales background and perspectives as well. Um, we absolutely want this to be authentic
and we've got so much opportunity to learn from each other, different perspectives and paradigms.
And at the end of the day, entrepreneurs and visionaries, what we want for you is we want you
to be that much better delegating. We want you to be that much better at representing yourselves
and that much better at sharing your vision. So Lauren Fisher, it's an honor to have you here today.
Welcome to Vision Pros Live. Thank you. I appreciate it. Absolutely. So let's dive right into the first
question, which is from your own words. What is your vision for those that you serve?
Um, well, my vision for those that I serve is that they, they find a product, first of all,
a product and a company that they're truly aligned with, so that when they are selling,
they believe in their product and they believe they can add value to their customers.
And also through sales, that they have a career that offers them flexibility,
an income that is reflective of their efforts and supports their personal and professional dreams.
And I'd love to see people decide at the very beginning of their career
that they're going to commit and study to become part of the top 10% of their sales rankings.
I love that vision and how much can be done to help salespeople find that true alignment.
It's, you know, if you're, if you really like sales, which I know there's a rare breed of people who
do, um, then it can be pretty easy to give people the benefit of the doubt and represent something
only to find out later. It's like, oh man, this really isn't that great of an environment or an
experience for me. Um, so the fact that you start there on helping people realize, you know, what
red flags to look for, um, what great signs to look for as well. That's, that's super empowering.
Um, I'm going to skip that for now. We'll come back to, if we have time,
what's your vision for you? What do you see for yourself on the horizon?
Well, my, my desire is to impact at least 100 companies and their sales teams.
And by impacting them that to guide them to have the clarity, the mindset and the strategy that
they really exceed, you know, meet or exceed their potential. Um, you know, sales is, I believe is a
backbone of business success. It drives growth. It drives innovation. Um, it's also extremely
important to me because not all sales has high integrity is to have high integrity and professionalism
as the cornerstones of the interactions with the customers so that my company and my clients
represent high standards of excellence. Absolutely. I also love that earlier you talked
about flexibility as part of that opportunity for sales. A lot of, a lot of sales people are in very
doggy dog world, um, you know, 80 hour plus work weeks that aren't necessarily conducive to freedom
of choice. Um, the, these hundred companies you talked about though, I would invite you to start
elevating the amount of companies that you're going to impact because my goal is for you've
already made an impact on us. Um, and as you keep doing that and we keep impacting companies,
we're probably going to impact a hundred companies within a quarter. Um, and that will be a ripple
effect as a byproduct of having talked to you today too. So, you know, Jackson, I knew you were going
to say that. So we'll let you come back to that, uh, that later. Yeah. Well, these, these hundred,
let's say, um, let's take it to that next level of impact too though. Right. So you can impact
somebody by them, you know, just hearing your voice. Um, but if we were to take that to a,
I guess a further more pre-qualified level of impact, what types of impacts, um, are you looking
to make, um, to the company you said to the person? Yeah. So the company, you know, that they have,
uh, gosh, a culture that people want to come to work for them. Um, but they have a product that's
impactful and that, so they're able to choose salespeople that are going to
honor the company and really create an impression, you know, an impact in the, in the industry.
Um, yeah, that says a lot, but it does. Uh, it's absolutely important. Um, there's not a lot of
companies where people enjoy going to work. Um, if you happen to be one of those, or you happen to
be in one of those, congratulations, the grass isn't greener elsewhere. Um, you know, that's,
that's what most people are still really striving to look for. So one of the reasons why people are
striving to look for that is because of their negative leadership experiences, uh, that they,
they come across. So what is your worst leadership experience ever? Um, when I thought about that,
I, I remembered a time where we were in a big hiring, um, we're hiring a lot of people and I
hired some people a little bit too quickly. Uh, one of the people that I hired, it sort of became
a joke later on where it said, I hired this woman and her evil twin sister showed up for work. Um,
I had to place her on a PIP, right? Or a performance plan. And ultimately I had to terminate her.
And when I had the meeting with her to terminate her, she like cried, begged for her job and, um,
um, promised with all her heart that she would, you know, improve and, and be the person I thought
I hired. So being a kind person inside, I gave her another chance. And when my vice president called
me and said, did you do it? I said, no. And he goes, Lauren, that's, that's jail house regret,
meaning that the regret that somebody shows right before they go to jail, even though they're not
really sorry. So his words rang true. And within two weeks, I got a complaint, a significant
complaint from our largest customer and I validated it and I fired her. Um, but I felt awful even then
watching her walk out of the walk out of the office. So the lesson learned there hire very
slowly and very, very carefully. Yes. Um, I, I know people, I won't say any names, but I know
people who've married people, um, with that same exact experience. Um, so we're going to leave that
right where it's at. Um, but in terms of hiring slowly, what's one tangible tip? Uh, think something
that you changed in that process to, um, to better account for perhaps the fit. Cause what I hear you
saying is that, yes, uh, it's, it's awful to have somebody who comes in that's an awful fit, but
it's also like, it's gut wrenching to know that it wasn't necessarily the person either. It could
have also been the environment and it, you know, you at the end of the day, feel responsible. You
have some responsibility in that cause you brought them in. So what have you added to your repertoire
on, on the front end? Now that's a good question. Um, I ask a lot more questions about what they've
done in the past and how to describe, uh, situations. So I understand their thinking process
and how they analyze their business and how they handle problems. Um, if I can, I will try,
since I'm not working for that company, I can say this. I will try to find out about them through a
network, um, have an unofficial conversation of somebody that will give me a real insight
as to their capacity. So, uh, and then I also wait and see how they follow up and, and the
depth of their follow up, the thought that they've given to it.
That's those are big, huge tips. Um, and, and they're tips that we, uh, I haven't done that
indirect thing so much, but at the same time, we're a startup. So everything we do is kind of
indirect. Um, still we don't, we don't, we can go to the references, we can go check on other
things. I'm, I'm very thorough with my research. Um, one of the things that flow research collective
was doing when I went to their hiring process that I now model is for sales reps. They have you,
not only do you record a loom introductory video of yourself, but in stage two or three of the
interview, you have to record yourself pitching their product in a role play to a prospect without
a prospect present. So you have to imagine you're having the conversation and guide that prospect
to the next step. The next step. And I was like, I was like, Oh my gosh, that's so awesome and
going to be so easy for me. And it was really, really well with it because of my background and
experience, but I can only imagine the amount of people who walked away right there and were like,
I don't want to do this or I don't know how to do this. Um, they had 600 applicants. There was two
of us who made it. Um, so it's really helpful to have systems in the front end entrepreneurs,
visionaries, when you're hiring to weed out people who aren't going to be diligent,
who are scared of the work, um, you know, or who aren't equipped with the skills to move forward,
um, and win. So let's talk about the opposite side. What is your best leadership experience look like?
This is much more, a much more pleasant memory. Sure. Um, I hired a team from a clinical
environment. In other words, it was, they were critical care nurses at a hospital, one of our
accounts, and they had approached me about working in sales. And I worked in the, so I've never been
in sales, came right out of the ICU. And I worked very closely with them for several years in an
area that had never really had much presence with our company. And they, about two or three
years after they started, they won, um, what we call the president's inner circle.
Which was the number one position in the region. And we all got to go to Tahiti.
And even better than that one trip is that they continued to do really well. And I believe they're
still in, uh, successful sales roles. They've continued with their career in sales. So that was
really rewarding. That's amazing. Um, and we're not talking, um, nothing wrong with network
marketing. In fact, the, the opposite on the opportunities to go places and all that, but
you're talking about, um, medical device cells. Are you correct? And that's, that's a whole new,
different game of, of things you have to learn, not just inviting somebody to come to a party and
eat cupcakes, um, and then sign up for whatever Joe talks about on stage. You're, you're very much
integrated into the entire process. And I imagine is it, is it, I'm sure you're familiar with complex
cells and enterprise cells is, uh, where does medical supply cells and this experience fall
on the spectrum of, um, I don't know, basic phone cells, door to door cells, enterprise cells.
Where do you think it ranks?
Well, um, it's, it's so multifaceted because
there's, there's many, many different levels of players and it's changed dramatically in the last
five years. So you have to really be very strategic in, in thinking about, um, who's going to
actually make the decision. Right. So you have to understand the political alignment of your
business. You have to understand the organizational alignment and you have to understand the
who's making decisions behind the scenes. So your network of people that you're in contact with
every day is from all the way to the CEO of the hospital to the purchasing people that are in a
corporate office in Nashville or something down to, um, literally all the way down to the central
supply people or the environmental services people. So you, it's, it's, it's a lot of
cells. That's complex cells. And just to underscore the point of why environmental services
were important is that we had a product, um, that we were selling into the hospital and ultimately
the people that made that decision were the environmental services people, because it was
something that they had to clean, they had to make sure that the people that made that decision were
clean, they had to manage. And it was a good thing that I had made friends with them
before this even started. Right. Absolutely. Your, your relationships, right. People say that your
network is your net worth. Um, and so your ability to build, maintain relationships is a huge part
of that success. Um, for those who are in the, in the space of complex cells are new to it or
getting into it. Um, if, if you're really good at applying books to your own life, like extracting,
oh, here's where I can apply this raving fans by Ken Blanchard changed my life. When I was representing
restaurant connect and we had to learn, we didn't have to learn, but we were really struggling to
get the attention of these business owners, these restaurant owners. And through that book, I learned
that, oh, wait a second. The decision maker is not the decision maker when it comes to
the implementation of our system. And that book helped me break it down. I'm not going to go
stealing more time from you, but you do look like you have another thought on that, Lauren.
Well, I didn't know that. So I just wrote it down. Oh, cool. Oh, there you go. It, it, again, it
shaped everything for me and helped me learn how to, uh, I'd already been in complex cells,
but I hadn't created a path for complex cells for a startup, um, you know, on my own,
um, until that point. And then, then, uh, that book, man, that changed everything for us. Um, so
moving into yet another lesson, what, and this would be, if this is your last chance to ever
share a powerful lesson with anybody that's going on a visionary journey, and they're going to be
launching something awesome, what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience?
Well, this is so, it's simple, but I think it really says it all is that when I learned, when I,
what I learned in my career in sales and in management, which was a huge learning experience
was the greatest journey in sales is the journey that is within yourself.
And it's not just about closing deals. It's really about opening your full potential.
And so my, my suggestion is you embrace the challenges because it's part of it.
You celebrate your victories and remember the greatest sales pitch that you will ever give
is the one that you're going to make to yourself every morning before you leave the house.
So what I say is keep selling, keep growing and be unstoppable.
Wow. And now I wish I had somebody to write that second quote. You just gave two back to back killer
quotes. And I, that I really liked the journey, the greatest journey in sales is the journey that is
within yourself. You know, I'll double down on, especially if you're very intent, if you want to
be intentional about your life, you know, and the true wealth that goes with it, you know,
the true wealth that goes beyond the paycheck. Then that journey within is what will propel both
victories to be able to harmonize and coexist. That's just, yeah, it's profoundly brilliant.
So I appreciate that. I'm going to leave me speechless. I'm not supposed to be speechless,
Lauren. Diving into what you do with the inside job and, and your company growth,
where you're headed with that. I'm just going to give you some mic time. You know, what,
what do you want to, what do you want us to know about the inside job? Who's this applicable to?
And yeah, what can they anticipate on the other side of, of maybe having a private conversation
with you? Yeah. So who should be listening to me is people that are sales professionals,
sales managers, or, you know, any kind of sales leader, or, you know,
any kind of sales leader, or CEOs of small companies, people that are afraid of sales
that have sales in their role somehow, which really is almost everybody. Students and educators,
business owners, entrepreneurs, people that are interested in personal development.
And I'm also a certified coach. So I really want to encourage people that sales is fun.
It can be fun. It's growth producing. And I really start out with things that are specific to you.
You know, what is your why? Why do you want to be in sales? Why do you want to represent the product
that you're looking at representing? What is it that sales will do that supports the life that you
want, you know, and not just financially, but other components of your life. And then how to think
for success from the very first day of work, that you make a determination to, to that you're going
to be the best that you're going to do whatever it takes to be the best study, learn, make mistakes.
And so we talk about that and we really create a roadmap for you. We do talk about strategy.
We talk about, like I was mentioning earlier, the political map, the organizational map,
organizational map, you know, how to manage your business. But I take it much deeper than
many sales trainings, because we're really talking about getting to know
your customers and what drives them. As well as make, again, making the decision that you are going
to be a knowledgeable resource to your clients. How do you do that? Because now people can find
out everything they need to know on the internet, and our clients are very sophisticated. So they're
going to do research on the product and have information that in the past, the salespeople
would provide for them. So you need to be several levels higher in, in the value that you provide
for them. So we talk about that and work out those kinds of strategies. And then I actually, every
other week, will provide personal one-on-one coaching with people so that they can share
challenges and problems that they have that they may not want to share with the rest of their team.
So I have several different courses that you can choose from, from the very beginning to the more
advanced courses. That's amazing. And one of the things that, that resonates to me and that you
emulate is in sales, if you're, if you're new to sales, again, you're a visionary, it's really,
when you're doing this correctly, it's all about helping people find what helps them best, in my
opinion. You know, you're trying to serve the person that's in front of you, not trying to
weasel somebody into something they don't need. That's what makes sales feel slimy. And obviously
because it's based on greed and selfish interests. But on the flip side, when you do have that
servant's heart and you are building, again, what I would write down is two words, clarity and brevity.
Lauren has managed to whip through these questions while providing a ton of value.
And we are about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, where most of the visionaries that I host,
because she's clear and brief and the power of the message still resonates, if not more than
a lot of the individuals who are a bit more wordy with their responses. So that alone speaks highly
of, of the Testament to what you're talking about. Now, two, you talked about this,
pre-cell environment that exists where prospects are educating themselves. Google coined a term
based on an old school book. The old school book was called the moments of truth. This is,
this is principally driven marketing based on certain, certain realities that are going to
transpire in the process of the cell, but it was pre-internet. Zero moment of truth is the reality
that nowadays, and I'll pull this model up so we can all see this. This concept is one I've been
trained on for more than a decade as well. And that's previously you'd hear about something on
the radio or you'd see it in an ad and you'd go and buy something off the shelf or you'd talk to
that cells rep like Lauren was talking about. And then the second moment of truth is when you
experience it. When you go home and you actually taste the cereal, for instance, the third moment
of truth, which is not mentioned in this map is, was it so good that organically you decide, wow,
I want to share this. I'm diving a little bit too far into the fulfillment side of things, but
I'm going to go on my soap box a little bit. It's because so many people are trying to force
the referral right now with all these promotions and just get people to sign up and listen to you
on vacation, et cetera. That that's not an organic referral. That's not somebody who actually loves
the product or the brand. It's a distraction from your trust in the brand. And that's the
distraction from your true value and knowing your true value. But this zero moment of truth level
that Lauren's talking about is one that you can ignore to your own detriment, but people are
looking online. They're seeing reviews, they're going on glass door to see what it's like to
work at your company too. That's a great sign. And how are they going to have great customer support
if they don't even care about their own people? So I'll turn the mic back over to you, Lauren,
but let's talk about that a little bit further. When people say, my customers don't do online
research, even in these medical spaces, for instance, no, they just come to us and talk to us.
What insight do you have there? When people say they don't do medical or they don't do research,
I was suggesting- Yeah, my people aren't on LinkedIn. My clients, my prospects, they're
not paying attention to what's going on online. I think that they have a fairly naive view of
the sophistication of most people anymore in the market. So I imagine that they're going to get
an unpleasant surprise. I agree. So what are some of the signs that you've seen in the market that
show that they are doing their research? When you're calling on a customer and they refer to,
for example, in medical, they refer to a recent piece of clinical research or they refer to a
competitive article or the competitive product where they've been doing their research just to
see if they can manipulate you by talking about your competition. That's not new. And their
presence on LinkedIn and some of the social media, some of their comments and the articles that they
write. Yeah, that's a great idea. So when you look up the company and you can see more about the
digital identity of the company themselves, that can be a great way to know how tech-driven are
these people that I'm working with. How much are they bought into? They might have an explosive
amount of content on TikTok already and they might have no Facebook presence and that. They might
have both. They might have the same post going out on every single platform, which is actually more
of a sign that they kind of just spray and pray and don't mess with it, at least from a marketing
standpoint. But again, it doesn't negate the fact that they may be a consumer of certain information
related to what your cell is. And so knowing your audience and doing that research is incredibly
valuable and important. Awesome. So moving into sales teams, inspiring them to embrace their
challenges and triumph. So I think a lot of sales teams got hit hard by COVID. I think that's
probably my greatest understatement in this podcast yet. How do we help them embrace
the challenges they face and then again, turn into triumph? Yeah, COVID has impacted, I think,
accessibility to customers. I think that that's changing some now, but it made it very difficult
to actually get in front of your customers. And so it changed the way that sales people often
interact with their customers. How can we support people? I think it's important to have a team.
I think it's important to have a coach. And keep in mind that sales is really about you.
And people go, oh, good, I love stuff that's about me. But it's really about you and how you show up
as an individual, how you show up with your preparedness, your market knowledge,
your resources, perhaps within your company, or within your community, depending on what it is
that you're selling. So you have to have a team that you can use to create ideas, market strategy,
follow up, and differentiate yourself. I think it's almost impossible to do it by yourself.
Okay. So we've already got a manager. You know, why do we need a coach?
Because your manager is trying to manage the business, but they're not trying to develop you
as an individual so that you are really doing your best. Yeah. And I shouldn't say that about all
managers, but as a manager, you've got a lot of people and a lot of responsibility. And you're
sandwiched between the corporate structure and your salespeople. You're the middle layer. And so
you don't often have time to really work individually with the people to develop them
like they can be developed. So wait a second. I hear you saying, putting the onus on me
as an individual, shouldn't my corporation be the ones who buy the coach and the manager for me
so that I win? Come on, you're not telling me as an adult, I got to invest in myself.
Take responsibility for yourself? Interesting. Okay.
You know, I would suggest that it depends on how deep your desire is for personal success.
Are you going to wait for your company to provide you with something or are you going to be
responsible for your own career trajectory? I was. When I was younger, I was waiting.
Oh, I will do that. I had to learn.
Yeah, absolutely. I remember I almost went to Adam at Restaurant Connect,
that was very, very close to ask him if he, you know, I was ready to hire this guy to manage my
LinkedIn profile and it was going to cost me $3.33 an hour and I needed him for one hour per week.
And I almost went and asked Adam for permission and to do it for me.
Wow. Yes. Learning to now I've got a company, I've got lots of delegation going on. We have
lots of team members, but I know what it's like to be, you know, to feel, have that mentality of
I'm an employee, you know, or I'm not, this is not my job. This is not my responsibility.
But when we make that shift to say, you know what, I can't invest $3 in myself. I can invest
$300 in myself. I can invest $3,000. And if I look at it from the perspective of, okay,
what are my results right now monthly? What could they look like?
If I have the right guidance that changes everything on the management side, you know,
managers like, well, they should hire their own coaches. Wait a second, Mr. and Mrs. Manager.
What if you brought the coach in for everybody? Couldn't that possibly bring everybody's life
forward when you've got a mom and a dad, right? A nurture and accountability person to, to start
looking at things from different angles and perspectives and helping people feel more
committed to the process of growth. I'm a huge fan of, of yes and.
Right. Right. And, and managers, you know, if they have the resources and they have the
understanding of how valuable coaching is, many times they will bring in individual coaches for
their teams. Absolutely. So before we wrap up on this, I've, I definitely want to dive in
a little bit deeper into what that looks like. So if, if somebody wanted to bring you in for
coaching for their team or coaching for an individual, what does that look like?
How does it start? You know, we haven't, I have an option of either doing it virtually or in person.
And at this point I'm meeting, we do one training a week for 90 minutes and then the
alternating week I meet with each individual one-on-one. One thing that I really is important
that I work very closely with the management team so that we establish timeframes and how much time
they want their people to be in a training each week so that I can adjust it to the company's
preferences. But it's a, the first course is a 90 day course. And then we have an option of some
mastermind groups or some support groups as people implement what they've learned. And they have to
start implementing what they're learning the very first day of training and they're responsible for
them for reporting back. So it's immediate application of these concepts. And so I think
that's the most important thing. And then reporting back how it's working for them and giving support
as they come across inevitable challenges. And then I do have some advanced training for the more
senior reps that is individualized to the company and the team's needs.
That makes sense. Cause when you're getting into advanced training, you've got to make sure that
you're in place to be able to, you know, it's milk before meat as the scriptures would say.
You know, you don't want a baby to choke on a piece of meat. So you wait and you feed them what
they can take now. And later they grow into the same is true in cells, the same is true in
copyrighting, the same is true in web development and everything else. You know, we have so much
to learn as professionals in order to be valuable to those that we serve. I have my own list of
questions that I ask salespeople before bringing them into my environment. If somebody is looking
for a sales coach or sales trainer at this time, what are some of the core questions they should
ask? And what are some of the, the red flags and the good values they should look for?
Yeah, certainly initially you want to make sure that the person that is potentially coaching you
has experienced themselves and has success themselves. So they're not.
I'm sorry. How do you figure that out though in a world where AI writes everything for everybody?
How do you, what are the questions?
Having conversations about tactics, asking them particular questions about,
just like interviewing somebody, how they handle things. You know, what was their
experience, biggest challenges, failures is always a good one, successes, and asking them to share
specific stories and then asking them to perhaps give a sample of what the training would be like.
I like the sample idea as well. And when you ask somebody about their failures,
why do you do that? What do you look for in a response from somebody when you said, you know,
tell me about one of your failures. Yeah, I look for honesty and I look for strategic thinking,
and I look for what they learned because we all have failures. But if we don't step back and say,
what could I have done differently? And what have I learned? And how am I going to change in the
future? Then we really haven't learned from that experience like we could have. So if I say, you
know, I don't really have any big failures that come to mind. I've always gotten along pretty well
with my team. I've always been pretty good at what I do. What do you know about me?
I have to say, you probably didn't really push yourself that hard.
And I'm not sure that I would completely trust the accuracy of your response.
I would agree. Exactly. I would say that there's that honesty. Maybe I believe that. But now I know
that person is not even honest with themselves. We all make mistakes. We all have failures. But
some of us refuse to look at it. Others recognize the value in constant development and progression.
I share with my trainees, my clients, failures that I had, things that I learned
so that they understand that they don't make the same mistakes.
Exactly. From what I did wrong. Exactly. You know, which one for me, which one do you want?
I was like the world's worst district manager for a time. Two, I was fired by the CEO of
Lifetime Fitness. And three, I about set our startup on fire right before winning the deals
we needed to raise $10 million. So while I did end up providing well in the end, at what cost,
I was a burden for people when I was a young leader. So there's lots of opportunities to learn
when we're willing to own it and recognize that we're very human. We have an opportunity
to grow and develop. Right. You're going to make mistakes. If you're out there pushing the limit,
if you want to be the best, you're inevitably going to make a mistake.
Absolutely. Any final thoughts you'd like to share before I wrap the episode up, Lauren?
You know, I'm just going to say for people that are considering going into sales,
but maybe not sure or you think it's perhaps high pressure, I would really encourage you to take a
serious look into that career. It's a fabulous career. You have flexibility, you have ability
to positively impact people's lives. And if you're in the right company with the right product, your
your income is literally, you know, as high as you want it to be. Yes. And there you're just
constantly growing and developing. You're out talking to people. You're out in the world. It's
a wonderful career. It is. There's a lot of companies that have learned to leverage that
statement that your income potential, you know, is limitless and they're lying. They don't actually
have, you know, a compensation plan based on reality. And there's usually stipulations in
them that say we can change your compensation any time. And so those those elements you want
to take seriously, but Lauren is 100% correct. It is one of the few careers where the cap,
if you're in the right environment, is you and your willingness to commit to it,
which does give you flexibility and freedom beyond most of the careers. What I would also recommend
is a book called You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar by David Sandler. That's my
favorite sales book. And David Sandler passed away in his early 50s, I believe. But the treasure
trove of value that he gave to the world by writing that book is something that I love dearly
and I'm very grateful for. And we have somebody in front of us who is not resting in peace,
who's alive and well, Lauren Fisher, who's got the inside job to be able to turn to as a resource.
So we're going to be putting on the landing page links to Lauren's resources. We may even update
those as she continues to update her programs and brands. If you have any questions or comments
regarding sales, drop those on the social media platform of your choice. We'll be happy to take
a look at that. If you want to throw an objection at us as well, or maybe something that you were
talking to the prospect and they gave you an objection that you didn't know how to overcome,
feel free to drop in the comments and let's role play. Sales can be fun when you realize,
wow, this is kind of like playing Clue or playing any other game in life. When you say, you know
what, I'm just going to, I'm just going to learn the psychology behind all this stuff and learn how
to help people better. That's what it's really all about. So vision pros, if you have a vision of
your own that you'd love to share in the top right corner of that page, you'll see a button that says
be our guest and we would love to have you apply, share your vision with me. And if it makes sense,
we'd love to have you on this stage as well. Everybody have a fantastic rest of your day.
Lauren, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. I'm
really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as
these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more
and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving
us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision.