Memoirs from Phoenix, Part 1

Last weekend I was privileged to attend the Southwestern Key Person’s Meeting in Phoenix. Over this four day seminar, we participated in daily seminars as well as team building exercises. There were about 100 students from around North America and it was fun meeting new people during “happy hour” over a glass of wine and complimentary popcorn. I took notes throughout the whole weekend and will now attempt to compile the key points for your and my benefit.

Most of the time there, I recall the speakers talking a lot about improving in the areas of life that you are weak in. I believe this was Ron Alford speaking. If you suffer in confidence, practice being confident. Get back to the basics. Crave wisdom that you do not have. Do it the right way. Be Triple H: hungry, humble and a hero.

As well, a work-life balance, or integration, was stressed. This was visualized by a bubble exercise where the relationships between your physical, Southwestern, relationship, social, family, financial, and spiritual aspects of life were analyzed together. How are these aspects related? How would you like these aspects to look in the future in relations to each other? What are three things you will do tomorrow morning to be more of a balanced person? For myself, I realized that my spiritual side of life was quite low, so I wrote I would spiritually believe in myself from now on. As well, I would be more positive around my family and give back to my community.

Dustin Hillis, the record holder for our company, selling over 20,000 units in one summer, talked next about “How to Double Your Production.” According to Dustin, selling is 100% conviction with 0% pressure on your customers. He showed a movie that really got me fired up called 212: The Extra Degree: http://www.212movie.com/. Dustin stressed that it wasn’t changing something huge that led him to double his production, yet it was doing the small things right and respectively that tipped him over the edge. What is double for you?

The Top Producer Mentality. What is that? According to Dustin there are two important systems that need to be in place. One is your M.E.P. or your Maximum Earning Potential. This means setting goals for yourself that push you beyond your best. It is similar to Mort Utley talking about thinking big. The next system is something we should all be familiar with and that is RAFT, or the ability to overcome obstacles that could sidetrack you. Realize an event is occurring, Accept the current situation, Focus on the controllable, and Transform the negative emotions into positive momentum. Dustin continues on to criticize what you think is your best day. You should have the mentality that your best day sucks. Nevertheless, you should not be focused on your results if you want to have massive growth. If you want to grow you should focus on activity “like a hawk!” (Hillis).

Become a Student of the Game. You are only successful as your five best friends (that made me think a lot). Carry your sales talk everywhere. Listen to advanced sales CD’s as if they were your favourite band. We talk about luck, or how lucky we are all the time. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity. So be prepared! Read Sun Tzu – The Art of War. Are you going 100% all the time? The full bag is cheap. Do all the stuff that they tell you to do and DO IT NOW! Dustin is very motivating.

Nick Henderson a DSM came up next with tips on how to save money. He says that it is not about how much money you make, it is about how much you save. He talked about the importance of making a budget. He mentioned the ease of using debit cards and that we should remove our money from these accounts and invest them in mutual funds or some other investment. During the summers we should remit 90% of everything we take in and not pay expenses back home with this money. If we do these things we will have a big check.

Yvette another DSM talked about how to have more growth through recruiting more people. First you must understand why you want to grow. Is it to become more confident, pay off debt, coaching, etc? To sell more books next summer recruiting will allow you to bring more momentum, a better schedule, more confidence, more excitement, higher goals, more belief and more competition. You get these things from recruiting. Look at Grayson Jones and Jena Klein who brought out big teams and had big units. To have a top team you have to find and retain the best people, you have to be attractive. People don’t join the business, they join you. You must become a leader in all aspects of life. Mentality for recruiting people: why would they want to sell books? Why would they not want to sell books? Why should they sell books? Have pictures to show people. When approaching and inviting, be yourself, use your sales manager. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no. The best is that you change their life. There is a lot of stuff here and they went really fast.

Kyah Hillis was next up. She broke the record a few times back in the day with units over 17,000 before Dustin came along. Kyah really knows how to put it straight. With regards to recruiting she postulates the need to create an environment that people want to be around. You are a role model! Towards selling she talks about the mentality of whether or not she did her best every single second. Instead of seeing this job as just a part time job, “work like you are going to retire with Southwestern”. Towards units she stresses the fact that we are not our units, and that we are created for so much more. This goes back to the idea of focusing on our activity and not on our results. Don’t freak out when you have a good day! “Who I am is greater than my units”; know yourself to take off the pressure.

Joni Bicknese was another excellent speaker. She heads our HR department. She outlines 4 core success factors:

1.       Strong goal clarity

-          Where you want to go? When you want to arrive? How are you going to get there?

2.       High achievement drive

-          Inner needs drive goal achievement. Fantasize: think differently than others. Think about reaching goals and fulfilment. Fantasize about achievements and talk to others about goals attainment.  Go places, read things, do high achiever activities. Think of the rewards and not just reaching the goals. Serve customers exceptionally well and gain the respect from other.

3.       Healthy emotional intelligence

-          Understand feelings and emotions and how they influence our external behaviour

-          Take control of emotions

-          Do difficult things

4.       Excellent social skills

-          Value people

-          Listen to what people say and how they feel

-          Understand

-          Respond variably to varied social situations

-          Cause others to feel understood

On Not Giving Up: The Philosophy of: "It Does Not Matter"

There comes a time in life, work, relationships, etc, where it becomes unbearable to continue on the current path. Something is hindering your continuation and slowing you down. You are so inside your head with worries and disbeliefs, which most of the time are not real, you stop. On the sales field my first year working with the Southwestern Co. I came across a hindrance that halted me in my tracks. I was knocking on doors selling educational material and was getting rejection after refection. Compared to my teammates, I was not producing to my desired level of standard. I remember sitting in the middle of suburban northern Edmonton unable to continue on. I was devastated. I knew that I could do this job but my mind would not let me and it was only my third week out there. I think back on this now and laugh. I had lofty goals of 3,500 units or approx. 20,000 dollars profit (which was pretty good for a first year dealer). I was not meeting these units. Why was I so in my head then? Why did I let other people affect my mood so much? I thought about quitting, nevertheless I knew I was better than this. So I followed a manager the next day to get some ideas. I calmed myself down and went out the next Monday with the air of indifference of whether I sold something or not. Immediately, I started to get better and sales were good because I did not care and people saw this, so they were less defensive. I ended the summer selling a little over 3,000 units (not so bad) and winning a free trip to Mexico. I won every single award there is and was 39th out of 1500 first year dealers internationally. The lesson here is that I don't know how id feel about that summer if I had given up. Getting out of your head and seeing situations objectively is the key. The phrase I used that helped me out was "It does not matter." So if your car breaks down, or it is raining, or if you have a zit on your face and you have to give a presentation, just think "It does not matter." It really does not. People worry about so many things that aren't real. getting out of this state and controlling your mind is key. Laugh at life and you will succeed.

Where's your (my) head at?

"Why are you so in your head today?" someone asked me today. I could not explain it; lots of things are going on right now. Having a free mind, I am privy to allow myself to over think and analyze everything, to the point where reality has been misconstrued. I try to break free of this downward spiral through action and spending time with those I love. It makes me wonder were people back in the day so "in there head"? or is this a social thing of our time, propagated by media and television.

Giving Up Control: Why Some Managers Fail

You cannot control another person! YOU cannot motivate them. These are errors in belief that many managers hold. While all this may sound highly negative, there are important lessons to be learned from these two phrases. This summer, I discovered the difficulty in motivating another person to work when they did not want to. In my defense, I was new to the whole management side of the business. Motivating someone to do a difficult job like sales was foreign to me. I was coaching three individuals on a regular basis; one was a top sales person the other two floundered in self pity and skepticism. Why the complete polarity in their behaviors? It has come to my attention that there were many external forces contributing to their failure; forces that I had no control over. At the same time I believe I could have gone about the situation in a different way. I had the belief that I could motivate people, whereas I should have had the mindset of coaching them through their issues, asking questions, so that they would uncover for themselves what would motivate them. Instead of telling them to have a positive attitude I should have asked questions. Sales is asking questions, uncovering a pain and then showing them how doing something will heal this pain.

Top 8 Books that have influenced my success in life and business and why they are important:

1. Og Mandino: The Greatest Salesman in the World. Hands down, if you follow the principles in this book the world is your oyster. Why? Because the scrolls represent the backbone to any interaction in life and business in general. Read it everyday.

2.Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson. This book is rich with wisdom from experience. There are lessons here for the young to the old. It represents an analogy of successful thinking.

3.Secrets of the Millionaire Mind™, T. Harv Eke. Actionable book that presents material that can be easily applied to your life.

4. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. Great book for those with a passion for developing new habits and learning their own strengths and weaknesses.

5. Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons, by Seymour Shulich. A Canadian classic, bred from success. Learn from the financial guru himself, how to make key decisions and manage your financial future.

6. The Tipping Point: how little things can make a big difference, by Malcolm Gladwell. Fuses key insights into an interesting look at contemporary society and how ideas are spread.

7. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Another must read from Gladwell. If you want to understand whyand idea is successfull and why it spreads, read these books.

8. Good to Great, by Jim Collins. Understanding why some business' make millions and why others do not is an important lesson for anyone wishing to be succesfull. This book was part of my optional reading in my HR class. This book is a big deal, if only the Lehmen Brothers could have read this book.

Please leave comments or suggestions. As well, any comments on books that have influenced you would be great. Cheers.