Tell me about your vision.
Well, my vision is to help people that feel uncomfortable with the sales process get comfortable
with it.
There are a lot of times that people have a really wonderful mission and vision and
they freeze or get extremely uncomfortable with the actual transaction of making money
from what they're doing.
And although my focus right now is on coaches, it could translate to anyone.
My background is in insurance sales and I've coached a lot of people in insurance sales,
but it doesn't really matter.
A sale is a sale.
And learning what it is, what obstacle people are actually having and feeling comfortable
and fluid in that process is something that's very much individual.
I would never do a group coaching of this because your obstacles are going to be different
from Harry's, from Sally's, from Jodi's.
We're all different and they're all different things that we have to deal with.
I never, I couldn't agree more.
It's one of the most, ironically, it's one of the most under coached talents, tasks,
priorities.
You can call it whatever you want.
Financial mechanisms, psychological traits that there is in the business world.
It's often because it's super misunderstood from one side or it's taught with an extreme
amount of force or oversimplicity on the other.
So I love the way you talked about that.
So you talked about where it came from.
I'm going to ask a different question.
What is the story behind your why?
Well, the story behind my why is again, very personal.
When I was married, I wanted to be an intellectual.
I was married to very young and I was married to an intellectual, but he told me that I
would be a great salesperson.
And that was like a slap in the face because I wanted to have a more profound impact on
the world.
And I felt that sales was basically only for money.
So it was almost like calling me something that it's just extremely insulting that I
would sell myself, basically sell my soul.
And then with time and traveling through Texas, like we were speaking about earlier, in time,
there was a CEO of a company that I was working for that told me, he says, I want you to be
a salesperson.
And he threw a sales book at me.
He was kind of ordinary, but he threw a sales book at me.
And I wish I remembered the name of the book, but that wasn't what did it for me.
What did it for me is that he actually flew me all around the country working with salespeople
on how to refine their process.
And in doing so, I fell in love with sales.
That's awesome.
I am fascinated by the sales process because that's predominantly my background.
And at the same time, it's just a fraction of what I do and one of the hats, one of the
many hats that I wear as an entrepreneur, podcast host, et cetera.
But I'm constantly looking for new resources related to sales, related to psychology, related
to influence, related to getting my point across, related to how do I help other people.
That's really what it centers around.
It wasn't always that way though.
It wasn't always that clear because one, we have our own selfish desires and two, we then
learn from people.
And a lot of people focus how to manipulate or use these tactics for their own selfish
desires.
And so there's different levels of training, different styles.
I got a very clear sense early on in our conversation and just what you submitted that you have
a deeper, more profound respect for what sales really is, especially with the story about
your husband and how you reacted.
But now you've come full circle on your desire to be involved in sales and your influence.
I wouldn't separate intellect from sales coach.
I would say those go hand in hand.
So have you succumbed to your former husband or your husband's reality or do you consider
yourself an intellectual and a sales coach at this point?
What does that look like?
Well, it's interesting because, well, that marriage is over, but they had nothing to
do with sales.
I'm quite divorced as well.
I couldn't remember if I was projecting or if you said it was your former husband.
Well, I'll just be very clear.
The marriage did not survive the transformation.
However, it had nothing to do with it.
I wanted to be a writer and I was a freelance writer back then and I'm still a writer.
I write all the time and right now I have a newsletter that I'm sending out to help
people with sales and the storytelling is there.
You can incorporate everything into it and that is actually the secret sauce.
The secret sauce to whatever you're selling is you and what you think and your stories
and what your purpose is.
So yeah, the two things have merged.
How can a leader, how do leaders lean into funding it?
What do they need to do?
What I shouldn't say need, what are their opportunities, their resources that they're
overlooking?
How do they get the funding they need to turn their dream into a reality and make it happen?
Well, I mean, there are so many grants out there.
I would find a really great grant writer.
How do you do that?
Well, I happen to know them.
That's great.
That would be super awesome.
You can start somewhere like the SBA.
Yeah, you can start at an SBA situation.
You can get out in network.
You can Google.
People are out there.
Use social media and say, hey, who's a grant writer?
I used to be a...
I know a lot of grant writers that waste a lot of time.
Yeah, that's true.
I met some decent ones and we had a whole grant writing division of one of my marketing
companies in Toronto and that was really helpful because it was, we just married the two entities,
we were in separate entities and nobody ever asked questions.
But I've met a lot of people who waste time in that space.
So that's why I'm curious for those who are listening later, do you know a specific entity
or person that...
I know somebody who's absolutely phenomenal and lives in Miami.
No, actually right now she's in Fort Lauderdale, but I definitely know somebody that I can
recommend.
But even when you know somebody who's doing that, you can't let go of the reins because
it's your mission, it's your vision, it's your passion and how are they possibly going
to know it as well as you do?
So I think that when you hire the help or they get a percentage or however it is that
you decide to work with it, you still have to take the time and be part of it because
it's your baby, it's nobody else's.
That is your baby and you've got to take care of it even if you have a surrogate mother,
it's still your baby.
So is this somebody you can publicly name or is this somebody that needs to be a different...
Oh, no, no, that's fine.
She's my sister from another mister, Hilda Hall.
Hilda Hall.
Awesome.
We're actually in a day apart.
So we're sisters from another mister.
Well, that's fantastic.
I appreciate that.
That's like an ultra, that's probably the most tangible answer we've had yet to this
question.
Really?
Well, yeah, I mean, you gave an exact resource of where people can go.
Are there...
Why are people...
We just gave the secret to the world for grant writing, right?
There's going to be a bunch of people who hear that and don't take action.
Why?
And I call it hiding from finding their vision.
Why?
It's very intimidating.
I mean, I've done a little bit of it and even when you're searching, and there's so much
money out there, it's crazy.
When you're searching, when you get into a state website or a county or city website
where they have all the different grants and they have all the different business opportunities,
it can really...
I mean, it's just...
The lists are just so long and the specifications are so...
I mean, there's so much minutia to it that if you really want the funding, it's out there,
but you have to do your homework and you have to work at it.
But the funding is there.
One thing I love about what you've done is you haven't allowed me to lead the witness
and I appreciate that.
You went right for something that you don't do, which showcases your desire to serve.
I'm actually going to lead you back to the witness, right?
Back to you.
Right?
So you coach sales and funding comes in many forms, not just grants, right?
If I've got a coach in front of me and that coach wants to sell a $4,000, $8,000, $10,000,
even a $2,000 service, then the best way to raise funding for a high ticket product is
to get clients, in my opinion.
It's talk to people and learn how to sell because if you've got a $2,000 ticket and
you meet 20 people over the course of the next two weeks and you learn how to close
20 to 40% of them, then you're solving your funding problem.
So what's going on?
If you're a high ticket coach, what are you doing?
So how do they start looking at it that way?
I think that from accounts that I hear every day, that the biggest, biggest, biggest problem
is in follow-up.
People don't follow up.
They'll be on your podcast.
They'll post things on all the different social medias.
They'll have the website.
They'll go to the networking meetings and they won't pick up the phone.
Nobody calls anymore.
No.
Nobody calls and it's great.
It's great.
It's hilarious.
It's strange.
I mean, it makes it easy because when I call people, because I'm that call guy, I'm like
the one phone call people get that's not a robot.
Right, right.
And then we have a genuine conversation and it's, yes.
And aren't people genuinely happy you called?
Yes.
I mean, thank goodness.
I don't, you know, I don't spam people so it helps, you know, because they know the
quality of the call they're getting.
Right.
That really helps.
Absolutely.
And, you know, I think that especially after the pandemic and with all the different things
have gone on with the world, you know, we all have a bit of PTSD and we're just hiding
in our shell.
We're like, we've all become turtles.
And it's like, stick your head out and say hello.
Yes.
Earphones in, sunglasses on, mask, hoodie, you know, forgot to connect with people after
that.
Yeah.
That's terrifying for the next generation.
We'll leave that for another podcast.
So with the sales aspect, heaven forbid, right, we're going to have some salespeople jump
in here with all sorts of condescending attitudes and zero proof of how great they are at sales
saying, oh my gosh, she just said follow up.
She's a terrible closer.
Where's the one call close?
You know, well, why are you not doing one call closes?
Right.
So I'm a big fan of you mentioning follow up and the importance of the long term relationship
aspect.
So there's this one call close fat that's being talked about.
There's people who think that if they don't close the call, like they're horrible at sales,
you know, or they don't know what they're doing.
I think there's a lot of myths within that reality.
What's your take on the one call close fat?
It happens, but it's kind of like a one night stand, you know.
Yes, it is.
I'm sure there's happy marriages that have happened that way.
I don't know them, but I'm sure there's probably at least one.
It can happen.
But you know, that's not really how people connect.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to 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 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.