at a trade show or a conference, for instance,
that's another type of sell.
If you're wanting to do a show,
in fact, these live interviews and podcast opportunities,
those are also elements of selling
and ultimately what we're doing is creating influence.
And that's really what this is all about.
It's making sure that we help people establish
a strong sense of influence
so that they can go about serving and helping others.
And so yeah, that's ultimately what we're gonna talk about
today and we're gonna explore the vision
of first class business as well
and what it means to build out a training
for salespeople and academy and the whole nine yards.
So hi, man, without further ado,
go ahead and get us started by playing the intro message.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guests, guest leaders who are building fantastic visions
out there.
Ultimately, I just wanna go through some of the things
that might help you with your vision.
So if you have a vision that you're pursuing,
drop a link in the comments and let us know what that is.
If that's a business or a brand,
if it's a nonprofit that you run,
be happy to promote it, be happy to talk to you about it.
And if you'd like to apply to be on Vision Pros
and be in it about that vision, then by all means,
feel free to reach out.
Hey, everybody, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host, Jackson Callum,
founder of First Class Business, CO at Podbooker,
co-founder at Able Health, and we have a lot of companies
that we're helping with their growth.
I'm really happy to be here today.
I'm excited to talk about sales.
I'm also excited to talk about hairstyles a little bit.
If any of you have fashion tips, I'm growing this thing out.
I'm not much of a fashion person,
but I figure, you know, I've got a full head of hair
and I'm 35, it's probably a good time to take advantage of it
and see what I can do with these crazy curls.
So this is actually an attempt to do the hair.
Anyway, let's go right into it with sales and influence.
So at the end of the day, your influence is not dictated
by your hair.
Thank you, Malcolm Gladwell for proving that point.
You know, and Seth Godin, if I remember correctly,
he may not have hair.
Neil Patel, say for bet on that, I remember him better.
So with that said, when it comes to influence,
what is it that people need to know about you
and need to know from you in order to obtain influence?
And you know, what is this thing called sales
that so many people are so scared of?
You know, why is it that it's such a scary experience?
What are some of the trauma triggers
as related to that word as well?
What are we doing at first class business
that has to do with vision
as related to sales and influence as well?
Well, there's a lot's unpacked
and we've got 45 minutes to do it.
We're not gonna go in a particular order,
but if you are interested in sales,
you have a question about sales, don't hesitate to ask.
I've done sales training with many people
over the last 15 years.
And one of the comments that I got when I was training,
specifically I was doing a mastermind on Mondays
for sales representatives who were already
in a phenomenal training program called the Sales Mentor,
where there was 15,000 people getting trained on sales.
I was one of the students as well.
This was about two, three years ago now.
And everybody was so drawn to the way that I role played
and the way that I was training
and really how much I knew in relation to selling,
digital marketing and helping business owners move forward
that they all wanted to meet with me constantly.
So I created this mastermind
and I had between 60 to 100 attendees regularly diving in
and seeing the recording about 15 to 40 come in live
to be part of that experience.
And as they kept asking the question, Jackson,
where did you learn how to sell?
Right, where did that come from?
Where was that?
And I used to say, I thought it came from
experiences of lifetime fitness
or experiences on my mission,
teaching atheists about God.
But in reality, where I truly learned how to sell was,
I remember when I was three years old,
my parents were yelling in their bedroom.
And I remember running through the master bathroom,
through the closet that had an extra door,
jumping across the bed, pushing mom and dad apart,
looking up and saying, stop yelling. And they did.
I was very fortunate in that experience.
My dad was probably an alcoholic.
We don't really talk now,
but I know how dangerous that situation
could have been for somebody at my age,
but at that time, that's just not, I wasn't scared.
I dove in knowing what I needed to do
in order to create the influence that I wanted in our home.
And that ultimately is where my cells experience
and skills began, was trying to have influence
in my home space to create safety for those around me
and safety with those with me,
depending on which home I was in.
My mom always had an amazing home.
My dad, on the other hand, there was a lot of issues
that went on behind the closed doors
that were not gonna get too much into that.
So how long have I been developing my cells techniques for?
33 years.
So if you have the opportunity
to dive into your own personal story,
you might also find recognitions
of where you happen to have training
or you happen to have gifts associated with cells
and influence as well.
Whatever your resources are, by the way,
if you have a favorite cells resource,
please drop it in the chat.
We're constantly learning and growing from that.
So I'll give you some of the more modern resources
that are more directly correlated with cells
that I happen to love and abide by.
One of them is, though you can't teach,
you cannot teach a kid to write a bike seminar
by David Sandler.
I'm a big fan of David Sandler.
And what he was able to bring to this world
and teach people, especially the first chapter,
it is golden about your I versus your R.
That's also a big part of our program.
What we talk about is your identity versus your role
and how understanding the difference between the two
protects you when you happen to have a difficult time
fulfilling your role or you don't happen to have the results
that you wanna see.
So there's that resource, Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Another phenomenal business book, mindset book,
that helps you understand the value of selling,
that also helps you understand the value of distancing
yourself from becoming a slave to money.
Phenomenal topic on how to understand the value
of work ethic.
So anyway, if you have a comment, feel free to throw it in.
We'd love to hear from you.
If you happen to be in sales, also don't hesitate to ask
to join me on this call live.
We're happy to bring people on as you may see fit
or feel prompted to do so.
With that said, one of the things that we're going through
right now as a company is we're in the process
of reconstructing the way that we teach our sales
representatives how to sell by finally incorporating
my sales training manuals, which are 10 to 15 page
documents of on day one, do this at 8 p.m.
I'm sorry, 8 a.m. at 8.05 do this, 8.20 do this,
at 8.45 do this and so on.
I've trained everybody from solar companies
as a president of a solar company in regards to sales,
software as a service companies as well,
and POS companies, CRM companies,
small and local business companies as well,
real estate agents, you name it.
I've pretty much been there and been involved
in the process of training and or learned under
some incredible sales mentors myself.
So with that said, those manuals,
while we have an important need for manuals
in the business world, in the traditional business world,
the traditional business world is slowly moving towards
the capabilities that learning management systems
provide online sales training platforms.
And so what we're building right now is an academy
for people to have, for business owners,
to have their entire company trained up by department
based on the needs of that department.
And we actually use these training materials ourselves
to be able to train up our team internally.
And as we continue to build out the infrastructure
of what that system looks like for those who are going
to train, so we're gonna bring that up on screen
a little bit and take a look at what that looks
and feels like, so let's hear Jonathan says,
one million followers by Brandon Kane, awesome.
In fact, I haven't even heard that reference,
so Jonathan, I'm grateful for that.
I'm gonna look up Brandon Kane, one million followers
right now.
So let's look at that.
So one million followers, if you Google it,
that's going to show us on Amazon.
Yep, fantastic book to mention.
There's over 3,000 reviews, yep,
3,000 reviews on one account.
The other one says 1,763 reviews, 4.4 star ratings.
That's a rare feat.
There aren't many books and resources that have
that much credibility associated with them.
So Jonathan, thanks for saying that our way.
We appreciate that.
If you want to, feel free to give us a little bit more
about what the book has done for you,
what types of things it can unlock for those
who are gravitating towards bridging their sales gaps.
Now if you're coming onto this live right now,
you're probably gonna want to know
like how does sales relate to your specific role?
Well, if you're a founder, you're in sales.
If you're in customer service, you're in sales.
If you are in hospitality, you're in sales too.
One of the distinctions that I think is very important
to relate to or be aware of is,
the stigma as to why people hate talking about sales
or why people don't like sales.
And I'm gonna tell you first hand my experience with that.
It may not be yours, but it's definitely mine.
I cannot sell and cannot represent a product
that you do not fully believe in.
I cannot do it.
I don't enjoy it.
It doesn't make my soul feel good.
And because I know those things, I literally can't do it.
I won't do it.
And that to me is kind of the essence
of why I see a lot of people suffer
in relation to their own identity,
as well as their uncomfortable nature
in and regarding the sales.
If you're inauthentically doing something
or promoting something that you don't really believe in
and have a buy in for, what are you doing
like to your heart and your mind?
You know, like how do you sleep it?
No, I don't think you do.
And I think that's why a lot of people
that are involved in an influence,
but creating influence with things
that are not authentically aligned with themselves,
it leads them to a state of depression.
It leads them to a desire to look for vices
that distract them from the realities of the world
in which they've put themselves in.
Now, you know, if you're at that stake,
guess what, you have a choice.
You have a choice to continue to promote
and to provide a lackluster service to others
and inauthentically represent something
that makes you feel like you're not yourself
or you have an opportunity, especially right now
with the, what do they call it?
The great shift that's happening,
the great resignation movement.
You have the opportunity to explore
all sorts of opportunities that are out there
and represent something that you do believe in.
Almost everybody's hiring right now.
So this is one of your greatest opportunities
to escape your own predicament
and move into a position of power
where you get to represent something
that you absolutely love.
Now, I know there's some types of people
who do not share in this world
and most of them are actually not going to be listening
to something like this anyways,
but if you're listening to this,
it's because you have a learner's heart.
You have the desire to represent something to people
to provide light or value to others.
And if that is you, then it's also helpful to recognize
that as you provide light and value to others,
your ability to ultimately influence them
and help them improve depends on your ability to sell.
It depends on your ability to help them feel inspired.
It depends on your ability to help them understand
the value that you're putting out there.
And some people are more passive at that than others.
Today we're talking about being absolutely dedicated
to that reality.
So we've got pulled up on the screen right now.
What is the Cells Training Academy?
And we call this the 100K Club.
Why? Because if you were to master these techniques
and move towards understanding the value
of representing yourself well as a sales consultant,
then you're very likely going to put yourself
in the Six Figures Earners Club
where you can earn six figures
in different sales opportunities that exist out there.
Now, if that's new and exciting to you
and you haven't been there,
then I highly recommend at least doing a search
on jobs online for sales, especially in the tech industry.
Even though there's all sorts of layoffs taking place,
the one division that normally doesn't see massive layoffs
unless it's absolutely failing is the sales division
because companies need new revenues in order to thrive.
So it's one of the most bulletproof types of jobs
or positions that you can have.
And whether it's representing a company like Google
or Facebook or a newer company and brand
like Lyft or Uber or you name it,
think of any company linked in.
Think of any company that's in the tech space
that you think, well, I don't know if they actually need sales
and you're wrong, they do.
They have to sell at some capacity or some level.
Now you may not be qualified to orchestrate the deals
that exist for those companies,
but in my first few years attracting sales jobs,
I didn't have a degree.
I didn't have a full track record.
I had to have the skills of the determination
to convince my way into the opportunity
and then the discipline to perform
in order to build my track record up.
I did not become part of the enterprise sales team
at all local because of my track record.
I only received that opportunity
because I was the most excited to go in for the opportunity
and I had an absolute purpose vision
for what I wanted to do outside of that company.
And it just so happened that I fell in love
with what the company was doing in building
and really liked it.
Instead of wanting to go back to Google,
once I did have my track record and could work there,
I realized, you know what, I really love startups.
This is what I'm supposed to be doing
and while Google is awesome, building something for myself
is what I really wanted to do after experiencing that.
So in addition to that reality,
again, the 100K Club that exists there,
the reason why you elevate yourself
to that type of earning potential,
practicing these principles
is because you start to earn principles of strength
that increase the value
that you're able to bring to the market.
And that's really what this is all about.
It's about building people from within,
helping people understand how they can access
their best selves from within, forecast that into the world
or project that into the world
and of course create influence with it
from a sales standpoint.
So let's scroll down a little bit.
I mean, let's just walk through some of the elements
of what daily training looks like
for a champion level sales team.
So I don't know how it just zoomed out,
I mean it was zoomed in a little closer a minute ago,
made it a little bit easier to see.
So if you can adjust the view, that would be super awesome.
But I can see it with my old man eyes,
I can still see it a bit.
So you'll notice that it starts with welcome to sales training.
There's a little parentheses there that says video.
Well, in that case,
that means that we still aren't haven't shot the video
for that particular training.
But if you were to go into the actual training itself,
you'd see that in fact, let's go ahead and do that.
I mean, we might as well,
if you wanna pause this video later and consume
what the intro lessons look like,
and you can scroll down a little bit faster on that,
we know what that image is.
So down here, you'll see the context of the introduction
and what we built this for
and who we built this type of a training for
and the purpose and our philosophy in consulting.
And also joining the Facebook group.
So you get the hands-on support that you need.
To me, in my opinion,
there's too many courses out there online
that lack proper infrastructure and support.
And I've never heard of a university
that was simply made up of courses
and didn't have some type of support and ecosystem behind it
that you belonged to, hint, hint,
all you course builders out there.
If you wanna build something truly phenomenal
that people gravitate towards,
feel like they belong to and want to,
and you wanna build a vision
that people can get behind and belong to,
then consider adjusting your program
to where you actually have a university model in mind
or the Academy or Institute model in mind as well.
Let's keep going with this process.
So after those two first initial lessons,
there's what we call a progress report.
And on the progress report,
this is an opportunity for our clients to,
oh, I see what you did there.
You were using a screenshot to make it bigger.
That was smart.
So revealing little secrets and truths about production,
guys, it's fun.
All right, so the progress report is we go into that.
This is our opportunity to check and make sure
that not only are we teaching what we need to teach,
but is the comprehensive,
comprehension taking place as well, right?
I don't need to make sure that my sales reps
or my team members hear what it is I'm putting out there.
I need to make sure that they're retaining
the most important parts and learning how to use it.
Go ahead, let's, oh, I don't want you restart it.
You're already on your assignment, don't worry about it.
We'll keep going to some of the next pieces of this.
If you notice on the right hand side
of the vision of this sales academy as well,
there's 105 lessons complete.
I hate that they call lessons.
I wish they could let us change that
because in my eyes, it's 105 activities.
And these activities are activities that need to be done
and performed in order for you to truly grasp the concept
of what it is that you're doing
and how it is you're learning these techniques.
So let's move on to basic training.
Now, if you have the attitude and the mindset of a learner,
you have the personality of a doctor,
you can actually blaze through all 100 of these
according to the timeline and pretty much master the art
of understanding how a sales consultant should be acting.
You can save yourselves years and years of learning mistakes
that most of us have to go through to get to the level
of sales that I've obtained.
And the Dean Forbes, my business partner,
has obtained and others who I could point you to
and say, you know, you can really jump on the fast track
of becoming like an Eli Wilde or a Taylor Welch
or a Peyton Welch, all these phenomenal sales people
that exist out there, Cole Gordon as well.
Each one of them has their own unique dynamic and twist
to how they go about training Jeremy Miner as well.
I love his stuff.
It's an awesome opportunity when you start to see the market
and realize, wait a second, these people,
they're not enemies, they're potential friends.
They're people who I could collaborate with
and refine my processes with.
And that's like math nerds getting together
and figuring out new formulas together.
Well, we're doing the same thing,
but from the standpoint of psychology and influence
and helping make sure that we're helping people
move forward in their lives.
So if that's you, if you're in sales
in order to move people's lives forward also,
don't hesitate to share in the comments as well,
what you do, you know, what you represent,
own that boldly, you know, go after it.
Feel free to tell us about it.
We might buy from you, you never know.
So back to again, day one in the basic training elements.
So, you know, little things that might be overlooked
that a business owner takes for granted,
but that a new sales rep may have no discipline
and understanding.
And if you don't take the time
to help them understand the value of these principles,
and you're naturally going to come to a moment
where you've made a costly investment
and somebody coming in, they did not fit the mold
for what it is you were trying to do.
And now you're at odds because, you know,
you weren't aligned on your basic principles.
I see that happen over and over and over at companies.
In fact, it's one of the main reasons why companies lose
is because they make bold, blanket statements like,
oh, I already have a team, right?
Well, that's great, but you have the wrong team
or the right team, right?
I can't ask that to somebody without offending them.
So we don't necessarily ask that question,
but it's all about having the right team members
and being dedicated towards championship level success
when you're playing ball at the level
that first-class business plays ball at.
So let's keep moving through this as well,
the basic training.
So you've got meeting preparations.
You know, what meetings should I be hosting
as a sales team?
And how should I prepare my people to come into that meeting
and respect the training that's taking place?
And what does that training look like?
What is consulting etiquette?
And what does it mean, you know,
as far as using profanity, for instance,
with a sales prospect?
Should you never do it?
Or is there a time where too much etiquette
and being too formal can also cost you a relationship
because people can't relate to you and your market?
It very much depends on the market that you're serving
and the type of audience that you're after.
Meeting preparations, we can go through this a little faster
to company meeting times, you know,
and what times do you do your meetings?
So let's see if Jaime has the ability
to scroll through this.
It's possible that he's, okay, there we go, awesome.
So systems to access,
making sure that we grant proper system access.
Now this is challenging.
This sells Academy as we put it out there to the world
and we bring on our beta users,
companies who want to use this
and benefit from this infrastructure, you know,
and then start selling this Academy down the road
as well after we get in what we call our grandfathered members,
the people who helped us make sure that this is on point
and applicable to all sorts of different environments,
which I'm really excited
because this is about as good as it gets.
But we still have that relentless desire
to keep building.
Well, when you don't have systems properly in place
and you've hired a sales rep,
this system's actually going to expose your sales flaws.
It's going to show people what you do not have as a company.
And you know what?
That's actually doing you and them a favor
because you're only setting yourself up for failure
and them up for failure.
If you have not accounted for the pathway
that a sales personnel needs
in order to be successful in their role,
either that or you've got to have deep enough pockets
to sustain them as you continue to build the infrastructure
they need in order for them to succeed as a sales rep.
Now, Jackson, what do you mean?
If we've got a sales rep who's the number one sales
representative ever for Disney or for Harley Davidson,
why in the world would they not be able to quickly sell
what it is we offer?
Well, it's one of my favorite secrets
is I hate to break it to you,
but in reality, the number one sales rep for Disney
and the number one sales rep for Harley Davidson,
they're the fastest paper pushers.
Nobody has to sell for Harley Davidson.
Nobody has to sell for Disney, right?
Disney tickets sell themselves.
People already want to go to Disney.
So representing a Disney is completely different
than representing an entrepreneur and a brand
that does not have a Disney-like reputation in the market.
So as a brand, it's very important
that you position yourself and you start building up
your own authority and credibility
because you're setting yourselves people up
for an extremely hard task.
They're out there looking for great jobs.
They meet you, they thought you're a great person
and that you have a cool vision,
but the more they get involved in your program,
the more they may realize, wow,
this sales opportunity is not what I thought it was.
This is way harder than I anticipated.
That's not their fault.
They're human beings trying to assess life too.
That's not your fault.
You're a human being trying to figure out
how to build a successful company,
but at the end of the day, it will be your fault
if you don't bridge the gap
and figure out the difference between the two.
So as a sales representative,
you want to be able to recognize what companies are ready
to host me to the degree that are ready
to help me achieve the success I want to achieve.
And if you get into a company and you start representing one
that's not well positioned to actually help you
achieve your results, well, that would be like LeBron James
or some other superstar athlete going to a team
that's in a rebuilding phase.
That's not in a championship winning mentality
and that would be his own fault for doing so.
So as a championship organization, right,
or one that wants to be such,
we've got to do what we need to on our end to recognize
as an organization, what do we lack?
What do we need to adjust and change
in order to be a championship level organization
and have the systems and the departments
and the infrastructure necessary to sustain such a vision
and such a dream or such an opportunity
if we're already at the point where we're scaling
said opportunity.
So day one, ready for battle, types of sales roles.
Why is that important?
Because there's a lot of different types of sales roles
that exist in the world.
And so if you don't know what those sales roles are,
how will you be able to recognize
what type of sales personnel
have the experience and training
to actually sell well for your brand
and what your service is.
And as a sales rep, how do you also have the ability
to know how your skills translate
if you're not familiar with the different opportunities
that are there and how do you protect yourself
and take the right opportunities?
Again, if you don't know what those opportunities look like.
So intro to cold call scripts and advanced end bound scripts.
Yeah, we know it's important to know both
and to know how to do both.
If we keep going, listening to actual call recordings, right?
Call recordings that were successful.
It's so important.
If you wanna learn how to play soccer, you know,
in fact, that's one of the best examples is sports, right?
Kids are inspired to want to play sports
because they see how much fun it is.
They see the success that exists.
They don't focus on the losing.
They don't focus on the hard work
that goes on behind the scenes.
All of the focus is on the victories.
All the focus is on the fun of the moment
and the opportunities that exist within that.
And yes, there are tons.
There's so much hard work that goes into
being a professional athlete.
And that's kind of the afterthought.
One in business, sometimes we get focus on the tactics,
the methodologies, the activities.
When in reality, we could be doing so much better
in terms of training and focus
if we also talked about the inspiration and the celebration
and the great things that exist within that ecosystem.
So that's why Google also has had such large successes.
They focus their brand around a culture of fun
and a culture that was inviting
and got people inspired to want to work there.
So kudos to them for paving the way in that regard.
So the success worksheet, again, more progress reports,
making sure that we're testing for what does the cells,
what is the cells are getting out of this?
Are they advancing?
And then making sure that you check these as well, right?
Having access to being able to see
are my people progressing?
There's so much to be said here.
One of the shifts I wanna make though,
beyond the mechanics, is back to the principles.
So we're gonna pull up a presentation
where we actually talk about some of the core principles
that exist at first class business.
And if your business doesn't have these defined
and you're trying to bring cells reps
into your environment, watch out.
You're likely to start building a company
with somebody that doesn't necessarily build
or believe in the same principles that you do.
So at first class business,
that's one of the most important things
that we established was, okay, what do we stand for?
And what virtues need to exist for us
to represent our brand the right way?
What virtues do our representatives
also need to be developing?
So you'll notice this chart over here.
We build on a foundation of love.
That's number one.
As a company, as a brand, we stand by that boldly.
In addition to that, we believe in the pillars
of patience, persistence, consistency, and reliability.
All incredibly valuable virtues
that have a lot to do with hospitality
and serving the person that's in front of us.
All right, moving on to the next slide for this.
How do we, so we have mechanisms in place
to help train on these four aspects
and to help make sure that when we're attracting
a new team member, they actually kind of pre-qualify themselves
by either exercising patience or exercising patience or not.
And learning to be persistent or not
throughout their hiring process.
We test for those four virtues, well, five virtues,
the foundation, again, being loved.
Now, once somebody's in our culture,
and as they're learning about our culture too,
we also want to make sure that they understand the value
of principles that are taught in books
like The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard.
We're so dedicated to the concepts of this book
that we actually create our own internal designs
related to his one-minute game plan.
And making sure that our entire team knows
how this process works so they can receive it
and have a virtual cycle of growth in place.
For instance, setting goals appropriately,
being accountable for them, receiving praise,
making sure that we give praise as well,
and then, of course, also receiving healthy reprimands
and what that looks like, especially in a world that
is quite terrified of the process of reprimand and conflict.
So those are all elements that are also important to our brand
and help us move forward, building a virtuous environment
for our team members to be successful.
And let's go ahead and go to the next one, Jaime.
And the next slide talks about the wrong team
versus the right team.
And I'm super grateful for the book, The Five Dysfunctions
of a Team by Patrick Lincione.
That book is one of two books that I regret not reading sooner
as a business owner because it came across my life about eight
and nine years ago, along with so many of the books
that people recommend.
But it's one of those where I just kind of had an inkling
I should have read it and I didn't.
When I finally read it, my leadership skills
started to go through the roof.
I started to align with people in a whole new level
and to create space for people to be
able to talk to me about problems or opportunities
for growth that could ultimately facilitate
a healthy conversation and allow us to move forward
as a cohesive unit and as a harmonized team.
So that chart on the left-hand side,
while it's hard to see, right teams
are built based on right principles.
And you have to teach teams about the right principles
in order to have them abide by them.
And you also have to teach them the signs
of a dysfunctional team, otherwise they
won't know how to recognize when we're falling off track
as a team.
So high performance teams follow the left side of this chart,
whereas the dysfunctional teams fall victim
to the realities on the right side of that pyramid chart.
And it's a phenomenal resource.
So grateful for Patrick Lentioni in creating that.
And we continue to explore this particular concept
on a daily basis at First Class Business.
It's something that is often brought up
when we're talking about the primary objective we're
headed towards as a team.
So all of that, again, wraps back into building a sales
department and bringing sales people in who can respect
and ultimately represent our brand well, which
is something you can't rush.
So let's see here.
Jaime Jimenez, you asked, who is your superhero in sales?
Do you follow?
And who do you learn and follow?
Who do you follow and learn from?
As I mentioned, David Sandler is one of my superheroes
in sales, and he has passed away.
And I would say that the Sandler Sales Institute has done
a decent job of carrying on his legacy.
However, there's plenty of room for improvement and updates.
And he doesn't teach business infrastructure
and how to build out a business.
He teaches sales.
And so they could use some upgrades in that department
as well.
Taylor Welch and Peyton Welch also
carried that torch further and took it to another level for me.
And I do follow Taylor a bit passively at this point.
I do like what he's doing with the wealthy consultant.
I liked my experience with the sales mentor.
And I liked my experience.
Well, I liked what I learned from traffic and funnels.
That said, there's probably a reason that he stepped down.
And there's probably a reason that those companies have gone
in different directions.
But what I saw firsthand at the sales mentor
was that the strongest survived and the strongest thrived.
And there wasn't enough support.
There wasn't enough infrastructure for the rest
to be able to really keep up.
I mean, granted, keep in mind, I was in their training program
for seven days.
And there was 14,000 potential sales reps in there.
And they asked to interview me to come and work for them.
After seven days, it's 14,000 potential students.
That tells you how far ahead I probably was
and those who were in that environment.
By the time I left, there was not left.
By the time I stopped paying attention
to what they were doing over there,
they were at over 20,000 students.
And I had gotten to see how many people were disgruntled
with the program and didn't feel like they
had the proper support.
And it felt akin to going to Disneyland
but not having enough people to station the rides
and not getting the support that you needed.
You were kind of promised one thing,
but the fulfillment wasn't taking place.
And I'm going to share that openly now because not to make
a bad example of the program but to open their eyes
and to open the eyes of all the other creators who
are following me and wanting to build out,
you've got to be very careful to be precise with what you
promise people and deliver upon that.
And then you've also got to have the support and the humility
to recognize when you fall short and to let people know,
like, hey, I've got a very important phone call.
Well, I'm going to have to ignore for a minute.
So sorry, they're distracting me.
So back to that reality, you've got to own your mistakes.
And you've got to make improvements
and be proactive about it.
You can't be passive about it.
And so there's little things that they
learn along the way with that.
And don't get me wrong.
It doesn't take anything away from the beauty and value
of what Taylor and Payton and Cole Gordon and others
have been able to put out into the world.
And it doesn't make them bad people.
It makes them what we are.
We're human.
We have our own shortcomings.
And so it's very important that we own that.
So how he says the right team is mission critical.
And how he's, I know this, he's worked with over 1,000 companies
in local San Antonio building websites for them
and brands and stuff.
He's a very good friend of mine.
And one of the smokescreens that a young salesperson
or an inexperienced salesperson might receive
or that a veteran business owner might utilize to try
to escape a sales conversation when they're not
ready to make adjustments is I already have a team.
That is one of the laziest ways to shut down a conversation
or move on from an opportunity.
Because the real question is, do you have the right team
or the wrong team?
And are you training that team the right way?
Or are you not?
You need to be aware of all that it takes to win
at a championship level or have team members, consultants,
or guidance that helps you win at those different levels
you're aspiring to achieve.
So, Howie, if you want to jump on here,
feel free to let us know when I make and send you a link.
And we can close out with you on this as an impromptu guest,
even though I'll have you on, of course, down the road
as a Vision Pro.
So those are, again, those are people
who I consider superheroes.
I don't want anybody to miss here what I'm saying.
Jeremy Miner as well.
I don't know him as well.
I know his program as well.
But another superhero who I look forward
to getting to know over the years.
And I've heard fantastic things about his program.
I just haven't been close enough to students
to know are they actually getting the results, you know,
that are being promised with Inset Program.
Another person that exists that I can think of is Eli Wild.
Eli Wild was part of the training platform
at the sales mentor.
And he provided an infinite amount of power and insight
into things that I was not familiar with in terms of sales.
It was a little bit harder to grasp his concepts.
He's kind of like me in these Vision Pro scenarios
where he talks a lot about the methods of the bike
and the mechanics of the bike.
And he gets really passionate about it.
And you don't necessarily know how to put all of it together
when he's training.
But as he continues to improve his ability
to streamline his trainings for the public
and as I get better at the same thing,
our level of power and influence will go up.
And that's just a reality.
And that makes us both human, not bad trainers,
not bad people, we're just human, just like everybody else.
And so when it comes back to the superpowers though,
one of the things that Eli Wild talked about
were the 10 clarities.
And it took me about six months and 100 people
literally trying to figure out, all right,
what are his 10 clarities?
And somebody finally found every last clarity
and got it mapped out.
He also taught a lot about this might be Taylor's concept,
but the buyer's pocket and why it's important for this,
for somebody to be in the buyer's pocket.
He also talked about posturing,
which is one of my favorite sales concepts.
That's more later into like the day five, the six,
the seven of our sales training platform.
But ultimately there's three different styles
that people communicate in, superior, equal,
and inferior postures.
And there's different things that we say
to put ourselves in one level or the other,
whether we realize it or not.
And once you become self-aware of those concepts
and how it is that you utilize them in your day-to-day lives,
it's also easier to assess what percentage of time
do you spend in each of those three postures, right?
And if this stuff is going over your head,
but you have the need to influence, right?
According to the roles that you play in life,
the things that you wanna accomplish,
and I highly recommend asking us further
about the Academy of First Class Businesses
and how it can serve you and what we're doing
to build out ourselves team and ourselves organizations
and building based on the backbone of all these people
who guided us to this point.
Another great person is Brian Tracy,
as well as his son, who was a different company,
Michael Tracy, who's a friend of mine.
They have phenomenal, phenomenal programs
to help people with the processes of understanding sales.
And at the end of the day,
it's your opportunity to seek friendships
with thought leaders like that and to go into programs
and to dive in and learn for yourself,
which program resonates the most for me?
And that comes down to what are you looking for?
What are the questions that you need to ask yourself
in order to find a program that makes sense
for the level of influence that you wanna have in life?
I don't think there are bad programs out there.
I think there are different programs
with different skill sets and different levels,
just like there's different math classes that exist
and different instructors who are more effective than others
and some who will take the time with you versus others,
there's other students who don't need the time.
They just need the materials that need to go.
So it very much depends on what the Academy,
the Institute or the course has also set up
for your desired learning style
and on how it is you wanna move yourself forward.
So with that said, let me take a look at my notes
and see if there's any other elements
that I really wanted to bring up today.
I would challenge you again in the comments right down,
what do you sell?
What is it that you're striving to sell
and what training have you sought
in relation to selling that product or service?
Be open-minded to what other people might share and say
in terms of where they get their sales knowledge.
That's how we ultimately ended up building the foundation
and depth of sales trainings that we have access to
is by being constantly open and aware
that there are new ways and new opportunities
to do things with more effectiveness,
but also looking at those mentors and qualifying them
based on the other mentors we have and ranking them
so that we know who to turn to for the best advice.
One of my top secrets in relation to that now,
one of my newest secrets is Dean Forbes,
my new business partner and co-founder
of First Class Business Now.
That took a lot, by the way.
It took years of us knowing each other.
It took hours and hours, not countless,
but well over a hundred hours of dedicated time,
making sure that we're evaluating our processes,
our principles, what it is we want in life,
how it is we go about being influential,
whether we, how we follow tactics and methodologies
and frameworks and implement them,
the way that we talk to each other,
the way that we talk to others,
how we evaluate good, bad, or ugly scenarios
based on our different perspectives,
there's so much that went into that decision
to bring him in at a new level.
And Dean has clarity regarding how to sell
and how to train in relation to sales
that in many aspects trumps my own capabilities.
And what I do know is the level of influence
that I want to be able to foster,
the amount that I want to be able to bless others
and move my own level of influence forward
and shine my light requires that I surround myself
with people who can elevate my ability to have influence
and to ultimately inspire the world.
And he's one of the greatest in that regard.
The same is true of a good friend of mine named Monty Maldi,
Monty being my former realtor in Austin
that helped me buy and sell my first home
that got trained directly under Gary Keller of Keller Williams
and was at one point the number two recruiter
in the world for Keller Williams,
which if you don't know that real estate agency
is one of the largest in the world, they're the largest,
I think it's called the largest technology software
real estate agency, I don't remember,
but you know who Keller Williams is.
If you live in North America, you know how big that is.
And Monty started with his relationship with Gary Keller
when he was 19 years old
and doing little mentorships with him on a weekly basis
as he was selling his snow cones
at the snow coast stand he built.
Well, now Monty's 52 years old
and he's got a few decades worth of experience and wisdom
having been mentored directly by Gary Keller
and which direction he should take his businesses
and what things that they could build together.
And it's just an amazing blessing, it's humbling
to be able to have access to somebody who lived
a very similar reality to rich dad, poor dad,
but under another mentor that many of us
are so familiar with, which leads us to the book,
The One Thing, as well as other books
that Gary Keller has written.
So, you know, the more you learn, the more you can learn.
And that's really what this whole process is about.
And what sales is about to me is serving people
the best way that I can
and ultimately aligning myself to do that.
And if that means them buying from me, awesome.
But if that means being there for them
in some capacity unrelated to what it is
that I would technically want out of that,
that's my responsibility as a representative
of my brand and myself.
That's my responsibility as a human being
is to show up and do what's best
for those who are in front of me.
And as a business owner, it was my opportunity
to look at the market and assess, you know what?
What are the values that I wanna provide
to the market in order to provide well for my family
and be really excited and happy about what I get
to do on a daily basis.
And that's what choosing first class business was all about
was figuring out how can I most be effective
in my role in society and helping other people find success.
And this is what it boiled down to.
So thanks for tuning in to Vision Pros Live.
I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Tomorrow we'll be live at 1 p.m. central
with our next guest and if you have any questions
about sales, comments about sales
or trainings of your own that you've loved,
feel free to drop in the comments
and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Take care everybody, bye-bye.
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.
We optimize them as the months go by.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
I invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention
and have an excellent time building out your vision
and become an efficient part of yourself.