what your vision is about your entire business and where you're at today.
That's awesome. So my business is all about taking the leads that my clients already get.
So they do their own lead generation. They do whatever they need to do to get leads into their
business. I help them convert those leads into paying clients. Okay. And so there's two ways
that we do that. First, you can't have a sales conversation unless the person is sitting in front
of you. So setting those appointments. So I have a full appointment setting service that we set
appointments. And then you have those appointments, but maybe you're not closing as many as you should
be closing. And so I do sales coaching to help improve the conversion. And I promise that most
of my clients will get double, if not more of their sales conversions by working with me in the first
three to six months. Wow. Well, I definitely like that. And speaking as a real estate business owner,
I'm like, that's the world we want to live in. Yes. Yes. So what's your close rate right now? Do
you know? I don't have the numbers on it right now because I often don't even think about it when I
come on here. If I do time, my mind is all shot for the rest of the day. But in the last year,
I believe I had at least six or seven closings and these, I also own a, I conduct not own, I conduct
a seminar, a buyer seminar. So a lot of them come from there. So we've already made that connection.
Now it's the conversion. And I say all of that is because I have a great understanding of what
you're talking about. Yes. Yeah. And you know how hard it is to get people in that room anyway,
and then to then convert them if you don't have the skills to be able to convert them,
all that work, getting them into the room or into that chair in front of you, if you're doing one-on-one
appointments is all for not if you can't close the deal. And my whole thing, my whole vision
is to take sales and make it more heart centered. And that's why I wrote the book Selling with Heart
because it's in the 20 years I've been in business for myself, actually it's 30 years,
I've been working for myself as an entrepreneur. Sales was always such a struggle for me.
And I always thought that sales was a verb, like that's something that you do to somebody,
you sell them something. And when I first had my fitness business, I almost went broke because
that's what I was trying to do. I was trying to sell workouts to people that don't want to work
out. That's why they were looking to lose weight. And once I realized that it's all about having a
connection with the person, just having and having a conversation with them, asking the right
questions, because that's like the big thing in communication these days, I don't know if you've
noticed this yourself. But most people don't ask enough questions. They're the ones that want to
talk and just answer everything. It's the people that are asking more questions that are really
the smartest people in the room, because they don't know the answers, they know they don't know the
answers, and they want to find them out. So be the smartest person in the room and start asking more
questions. Yes, yes. And I think it's that balance though with listening. Begin to ask questions
that are pertaining to what that individual is talking about. A lot of us, and I believe that
it's sometimes we get in our head and we listen to respond, rather listen to be
to be inquisitive, you know, asking and wanting to know. So that's definitely something I think
everyone could utilize, not to mention you said something that's really heartfelt, is the fact
that it's a built upon relationship. We don't necessarily want to sell someone anything.
We want to get to know them to see what we can do to be of service to whatever need or want they have.
So I definitely understand that. Yeah, that's exactly the way to approach it too, because if
you're always thinking about, oh, I just need to make the sale, make the sale, it just doesn't do
anybody any good. So when you get the people that you help or clients and you realize that they're
profit focused rather than people focused, what do you do to shift that or if you do anything to shift?
Well, that's a great question. Generally, because of the marketing that I do and the
videos that I produce and all that, I generally don't get those people. They opt out anyway,
because they're like, oh, heart center, I don't want to do that. That sounds stupid,
which I've gotten those comments on social media before. It's like, yeah, right. Yeah,
it's not for you. Delete. Yes. So I generally don't get those. But if I do, it's really about
asking, again, going back to the questions, it's asking that particular person I'm coaching,
asking them the questions about what's driving the profit. Why are we so focused on profit rather
than focused on the value that we're providing to our prospects? And once we have that conversation,
generally, it's not really a profit focus. They're just in scarcity mindset and we need to make some
sales because the business isn't doing great. And for anybody that's only closing like 10 to 20%,
especially in the health and fitness and health and wellness arena, if they're closing like 20%,
30% or less, the business is in real trouble. And I can see that, that the scarcity mindset
is starting to hone in and become, respectfully stating, self-centered, right? Because we all
have needs as business owners. And if that need isn't getting met in order to take care of our
family, our mind completely shifts to, hey, money, money, money, money, and miss the mutual
relationship and the respect that we can create so that that can flow. I've always said that money
can grow on a tree. I'm just trying to find the right tree. That's right. I think so. It's so
funny during the pandemic, everybody's like, oh, money's tight right now and it's not happening.
Money didn't go anywhere. It was the same amount of money in the whole world. It just wasn't moving.
It's that movement of money that makes the economy go around. It's not printing more dollars or yen
or whatever pesos or euros or pounds. It's moving that money, spending the money in a smart way,
of course. You don't want to be frivolous about it, but moving that money around is going to get
out of the scarcity mindset and get to abundance mindset a lot easier. And that's the shift that
I've had to make over the years as well. I used to be very scarcity mindset. And I would nickel and
dime everything because I was taught, my parents look after the pennies because the dollars were
taken care of themselves. There's a lot of really good truth in that. But if all you're doing is
just looking at the pennies, nickels and dimes, you're missing the bigger picture on what else
that you could be doing and creating value for your clients. Yeah. That makes
things pun intended. That makes sense. Awesome. Well done.
I wish I had one of those things. Oh, I don't have my soundboard.
How does selling with heart redefine the sales process for businesses?
Oh, yes. So first of all, it's all about the conversation and asking the right questions.
So that's at the heart of the matter. And heart itself is an acronym. So A-E-A-R-T. And that's
the process that I take people through. So the H is hugs. It goes along with heart. Hugs is all
about rapport building and creating that environment that makes it easy for a buyer to buy. And that
hugs starts at the very first moment that they know about you, whether it be a Facebook post that
you do, a speaking engagement, an ad that you have. The hugs start there. And then go all the way to
the sales conversation at the very first part is where you want to put them at ease so that you are
able to have a good conversation with them. The E in heart is engage. So that's getting them to talk,
ask questions, get them to respond to those questions. The A is ask. And this is, I flipped
the script on ask. So it's not you asking the prospect to join your program. It's your prospect
asking you to join. And when you do the first part of the sales process the right way,
it will become a lot more easier, a lot easier to have those prospects ask you for the sale,
which is a nice shift to happen. And then the R and the T are what happened after the sale.
R is referral. I know as a realtor you are really good at asking for referrals or anything.
And that's one thing that a lot of business owners fail to do is ask for referrals in a good way.
And then the appropriate time right after you make the sale is not the appropriate time to ask for a
referral. It's once they've gotten some results. And then the T is testimonials. Referrals and
testimonials go hand in hand and help your marketing and the rest of the sales process
go so much easier. You get a referral, you know they're going to buy unless you screw up everything
else. Testimonials get to know you based on somebody that they saw that looks like them,
you know sounds like them, has the same problems as them, get results because of you. Now that
person's going, hey the common here is Javonica so I want to hire her for what I wanted, you know,
that solution that I'm looking for. Yes. And so remind me of E again.
Engage. Engage. I was right. Hugs, engage, ask, referrals and testimonials. Yes. I love it. And
I think that my most favorite part as I smiled from ear to ear was hugs, right? Because you have
to come with open arms, right? And that's the part that you're open to receiving whatever,
if I may say, the universe has for you, right? And then as they come closer to you because you're
choosing to invite someone in, your arms begin to circle around them, right? And that shows a
thought of protection, right? And security. That whatever I've said to you to bring you a little
bit closer in allows me to protect you and tell you that my service is for you. And that's
you know, and not just for the money piece to it. And then once you grab and they come a lot closer
to you, you're now completely engaged in trust and honesty. And at that moment, they're probably
going to say, why are we hugging, right? Where did this lead us to? And at that point, you now
have the H, the E and the A because you were open enough to receive whatever the universe has for
you. So yes, I took that to a whole different level, but I love it. I love it. That's great.
Wow. Can you write the second version of my book then?
I mean, you know, when you truly, I love people, Tom, and you have to love people to do exactly
what you do and more so than what I do, right? And of course, there is profit in everything.
And that's the goal is to make money. But without the person, there is no profit. And without
purpose, there is neither one of those. And so for you to create an acronym, that's so big, right?
Because without the heart, you can't, there's not much that could happen. Tom, I was an organ,
tissue and eye coordinator when I moved to San Antonio, Texas. So I have some thoughts about
hearts and what it's like to give and revive someone else. So I'm totally on a whole different
level. I won't take the show, but I'm glad you led me there. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. How did you get
started? Well, it came out of pain. Right? So when I first, yeah, I've been an entrepreneur for 30
years, but the first really big business that I did without any safety net was my fitness business
that I started in Houston, Texas, in 2008, the height of the housing crisis, which was a great
time to start a new business. And I learned very quickly that I wasn't going to grow, I wasn't
going to stay in business unless I learned how to sell at a high level. Because the way I was doing
it now was, or then when I first started was awful. I was maybe closing one person out of 10. So 10%
close rate. Once I dove deep into sales, got a coach, understood the psychology of sales,
human psychology of making decisions, read tons of books on sales and marketing and psychology,
that people make decisions and specifically the sales decision and the buying decision
because of emotions. And when you come to any conversation with heart versus head,
that's where all the emotions are. They're in your heart. And once I learned just how to have
a real heartfelt conversation with people, ask the right questions in the right order,
and then present my solution that addresses their exact problems, I took that 10% close rate and
turned it into a 90% close rate. In a matter of like three months. It became a joke with one of
my coworkers, she would see a prospect come in and she'd just shake her head and goes,
they're giving us some money today. They're giving us money. Got another client signing up,
even before they started talking to me. And sure enough, you know, two seconds, not two seconds,
but like 20 minutes later, I'd be walking out to the printer to grab the contract and she goes,
yep, knew it. Well, I once like once your attitude shifted, I'm sure something in you shifted
tremendously. I think that positive people receive positive results. 100%. Yeah. Yes. And I wonder,
do we ever realize that? Have you patted yourself on the back, Tom? I just did. Once in a while,
I will do that. And I think maintaining a business coach and I've had the same business coach,
kind of a general business coach that I work with for since then. So almost 20 years.
And so almost 20 years now that I've known her and she's really good about making me give myself
props, which I think us as business owners don't always do that. Nobody else is going to do it
either. So we need to do it ourselves. Thank you for that reminder. I'm like, I think he needs to
pat himself on the back because at the end of the day, you know, we don't receive results or change
unless we want to, you know what I mean? And so that was a want and a strong desire. Yes, it had
a lot to do with numbers, but it took you to be people centered in order to make that change.
And so interesting, you've said it a couple of times, you're in Taiwan and was in Houston before,
how has living in Taiwan influenced your perspective on sales and business compared to when you were in
Houston? That's a great question. You know what, it hasn't at all. Yeah, because, you know, people
are people no matter where they are in the world. People need to sell things and people need to buy
things. And it doesn't change. My business is completely online anyway. And I work with US and
UK and Australian, you know, English speaking clients primarily. And so, you know, it's all remote
anyway. So it doesn't really matter where I am. But what I've noticed is that, you know, being in
a foreign country, and not knowing the language, learning the language, and the culture and all
that does open your mind and your heart quite a bit to, you know, different different perspectives.
And I think everybody needs to leave their home state, at least. And if not, leave your home
country for a while. And explore the world because there's just so many really cool
cultures out there that we, you know, we can see it on TV, but it's so much different when you're
sitting in a restaurant in the middle of Mexico City, and there's gunfire going off next door.
True story. Versus, you know, going downstairs and getting some dumplings at midnight.
I love dumplings. I just had to say that I love dumplings. Yeah. And the sauce, whatever they put
in the sauce. It's like the life. So you're living life. You're living the life. You have art,
you give out hugs, you engage with people, and you eat dumplings downstairs. What? I know.
I'm blessed. Oh, man. If you didn't know it, you should know it now.
Life is good. What's your why?
Wow, this is actually something I struggle with quite a bit because, you know, I've been
with my family for a long time. I have a family of my own. I have brothers, but I don't have
kids or anything like that. So a lot of people put their why as their family and their kids,
which is really cool. I don't have that. So my why becomes my clients. Not that they're children,
and sometimes they act like that. But I want other businesses to be, and especially in the health and
wellness field. And I work with a lot of functional medicine doctors and chiropractors and people
that are doing some holistic wellness, which is so needed in the world, that I want them to be so
much better at getting more patients so that they stay in practice. Because our health care system
in the US is at a crisis. The last time, like, I'm outside of that system now, but the last time I
went in, it was a five minute conversation, and it ended with a prescription. And did I really need
the prescription? I don't know. I guess maybe the doctor said so. But looking, you know, yeah,
we're gonna put you on cholesterol medication, Tom, because your cholesterol is too high.
Talking to a functional medicine doctor, they're like, well, which cholesterol is too high? Is it
the fluffy kind? Because you need that coming egg yolks, because that's the good stuff. Or is the
hard kind that stick to your arteries? We don't know, because nobody tests. But like, do I need
to be on Lipitor? No, probably not. So it's just, you know, those questions that don't get answered
in a five minute conversation with your doctor. That's my why is to get, you know, functional
medicine, get getting to the root cause of people's issues, get that out there, don't have another
medication created for some symptom that doesn't need fixing. 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.