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September 27, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Take Responsibility

Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. – James Allen

This quotation from James Allen (I advise you to read his 1902 As a Man Thinketh probably free on Kindle) is from the chapter on ‘Responsibility’ from Weldon Long’s The Power of Consistency. (Today’s Reading: The Power of Consistency: Prosperity Mindset Training for Sales and Business Professionals by Weldon Long)

‘Responsibility’ is the fourth part of Long’s 4 step model for developing a more effective and consistent habit of making high quality decisions:

  1. Focus – Create a plan
  2. Emotional Commitment – Become tied to that plan through a daily practice of reflection on the results and elements of accomplishing the plan
  3. Action – Taking the consistent actions required by the plan and imprinted on your mind and heart by the emotional commitment.
  4. Responsibility – Take responsibility for everything within your control. Economic ups and downs, others’ decisions, and the weather aren’t in our control. Spend time focusing on the decisions we can make in spite of all these things vs. blaming the conditions.

Our responsibility is to focus our thoughts on the things that we can affect. In a sales setting, we can’t ultimately force a prospect to make a decision, but we can improve our processes and skills. We must take responsibility for improvement on those areas vs. blaming prospects for their decisions. Over time, the results will fall our way on a more consistent basis.

This idea of taking responsibility really is a freeing thing. Even if somebody has done something really horrible to us, we can still take responsibility for our responses. We don’t have to be victims or live in suffering. Obviously, some things require some major work, but committing to the major work is part of learning to take responsibility.

Today’s Action Item: Spend time with my family (it’s Saturday) and define my sales process. 

One of the key elements in this section of Long’s book is to focus on the sales process and improve each element. Subsequently, the sales process must be clear and defined so that I can focus on each element and improve each part.

Now on to part one of today’s action item – hanging with the family. Y’all enjoy your Saturday.

Until tomorrow…

————————

This blog is a response to Dan Miller’s unintentional challenge from his podcast on August 15, 2014: If you read or listen to 30 minutes of quality content a day, you’ll double your income. 

From September 1, 2014 through March 1, 2015, I will be doing the following:

  1. Listening or reading to 30 minutes of success, growth, business, spiritual, or other mindset-shifting, skill-sharpening content.
  2. Selecting one action item from that content (with some leeway to select an action from a previous day’s content).
  3. Doing that one action.
  4. Writing about the action or some other idea from the reading and listening of the day. 

Filed Under: Mindset Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: 6 month challenge, as a man thinketh, consistency, dan miller, focus, james allen, power of consistency, sales experiment, take responsibility, weldon long

September 25, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

I Have a Crush on Pinterest

And I blame Cynthia Sanchez and Vincent Ng. I also blame the fact that I went through a brief spat with Twitter and Facebook. They just weren’t giving me what I wanted. I needed more.

So, I started flirting with Pinterest. She is gorgeous. I love her long, slender images. And the fact that she’s always full of surprises and suggestions and fun ideas.

I still feel a little awkward around her (her being Pinterest, of course), but that’s why I love Ms. Sanchez’s Oh So Pinteresting Podcast.

Sanchez has a handle on how to make your pins as searchable as possible (hint: pin descriptions and image names and alt-text are really important. If you don’t know what that means, neither did I). She also offers wonderful insight whenever Pinterest changes (which seems to be daily).

When I first started getting into Pinterest to help out a friend’s ecommerce efforts, I found her podcast and power listened to about 15 episodes (at least). If you’re new to Pinterest, I recommend doing the same to give yourself a solid foundation.

In addition to helping me with the ecommerce work, I ended up picking up great tidbits to use for my B2B day job as a commercial insurance man.

Vincent Ng’s book Pinterest to Profits with Pintalysis is also a wonderful resource. Mr. Ng helped teach Sanchez’s Oh So Pinteresting Pinterest for Business Workshop – a solid little course that takes you from 101 status to 301 status pretty quickly.

Pinterest and Editorial Perspective

While I’m not sure if Pinterest is the most effective social channel for insurance, I know that developing an editorial perspective with Pinterest in mind helps me work harder to get inside of the heads of my clients.

As a matter of fact, one of my favorite things about all content and social marketing methods and options is that they have helped develop my voice as a sales professional. They force you to clarify your value and gain greater understanding of your audience.

But like any other social channel, you have to be social. And that’s what today’s short action is about.

Today’s Action: Reach Out to Pinners Who Pin Your Pins and Pin Their Pins

Yes… that was an intentional attempt at a tongue twister. The Oh So Pinteresting (OSP) episode 71 encouraged being a little more social on Pinterest. It’s a great idea. And it seems normal to do. I went into a couple of my accounts and dug through the people who pinned my pins and followed boards, left comments, and repinned pins.

Simple. Easy. Not groundbreaking activity, but this challenge isn’t about being a daily groundbreaker. It’s about taking a small action daily. I did the action. Yay me. 🙂

Today’s Listening and Reading (besides the Oh So Pinteresting Episode 71)

How to Overcome Addictions and Be Courageously Vulnerable with Glennon Melton – The School of Greatness Podcast with Lewis Howes. Melton’s story is powerful. Check out her blog, The Momastery, to learn more.

The Power of Consistency: Prosperity Mindset Training for Sales and Business Professionals (Affiliate Link) by Weldon Long  – I’m still making my way through this book. Look forward to being… consistent with the info that is in the book, doing my daily quiet reflection exercises.

Until tomorrow…

Filed Under: Marketing Experiments, Sales Experiments, Social Media Experiments Tagged With: consistency, cynthia sanchez, glennon melton, lewis howes, marketing, pinterest, school of greatness, social media marketing, vincent ng, weldon long

September 16, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

One Thing Every Dang Day

One Thing Every Dang Day

It seems like a wimpy way to do things: Pick a goal and select one action to take that will move you toward that goal. And then actually do that one action item.

It’s not ‘massive action’. It’s not ‘leaving out all out on the field’. It’s one thing. Every day.

But one thing a day, compounded over the year, might be 2 to 3 times more ‘things’ than you’d do otherwise.

The Habit of One Thing a Day

I’ve heard this suggestion before. Darren Hardy talks about it at length in his book The Compound Effect. Paul Castain discusses it in his Podcast (the one I listened to this morning), admonishing his listeners to learn to take action.

What I love about this suggestion to select one, maybe two, things a day is that it helps me move forward with much less frustration. As Castain points out in this episode of his Sales Playbook podcast, we all have families and jobs and clients and a variety of responsibilities. We can’t simply start taking 5-10 new actions a day without majorly upsetting the balance in our lives.

Therefore, one specific, targeted action a day is a healthy way to move toward a well-defined goal or personal self-improvement initiative.

That’s what I’ve been attempting to do through this challenge that I affectionately call the 6 Month Dan Miller Challenge.

Today’s Action: Request Castain’s “Qualities of a Rock Star Sales Person” list, rate myself on a scale of 1-10 for all 75 qualities, and identify particular weaknesses.

See for yourself where the weaknesses fall out. Now I have to decide if I’m going to focus on the weaknesses or pull out my ’10s’ and leverage my strengths. Decisions.

Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged
Disorganized, Bad at Email, Time Management Impaired, and Sales Process Challenged – I hope nobody I know disagrees with my 9s and 10s

Today’s Second Action: Reach out to a new networking contact.

I love the little self-tests and ‘in the privacy of my own office’ projects, but if part of the goal here is to create value to receive value, then I need to find folks for whom to create value. If my main action item doesn’t involve engaging another human person, I must add at least one attempt to reach out.

My three pronged marketing plan to find places to teach, find bloggers and journalists to get to know, and engage experts in one-on-one interviews is vital to my mission.

I also will need to add more direct sales prospecting methods. But I’m sure I’ll be running into those action items soon.

Today’s Listening

I did read more of The Dip by Seth Godin, but not a whole lot more.

My main listening was The Sales Playbook Podcast (I had a lot of phone calls during my rush hour drive times today):

Episode 106 Getting Back To School With Your Selling Skills Part 3 September 11, 2014 – Paul Castain. My exercise for today came from this podcast.

Filed Under: Networking Experiments, Productivity Experiments, Sales Experiments Tagged With: consistency, dan miller, darren hardy, habits, paul castain, productivity, sales, sales skills, sales test, the compound effect, your sales playbook

Hello!

Brett the sales experimenter and the challenge accepter Brett - Sales and Marketing Experimenter. I'm a reluctant sales professional. I didn't start out my career in sales and marketing, but I've grown to enjoy it. Here I discuss marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset experiments that will hopefully yield greater results and a more deeply satisfying sales career.

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