Podcast appearances and mentions of alison edgar

In this episode of The Business Awards Show, I speak with the remarkable Alison Edgar, MBE,  an expert in improving performance inside organisations. Throughout Alison's years advising entrepreneurial businesses, she has discovered important factors that make them successful. Alison takes these lessons on enhancing motivation, communication, and agility and shares them with enterprising businesses. She is also author of two bestselling books on sales. Our conversation delves into Alison's inspiring journey, beginning when she started her business at the age of 46, after a successful career in hospitality and corporate sales. She shares her unique background, highlighting her experiences working for prestigious companies like Radisson and BT, explaining how her hospitality roots shaped her approach to sales and customer service. We discuss the pivotal moment that led her to establish her own sales training company, emphasizing the importance of starting small and transitioning from a side hustle to a full-time venture. Throughout the episode, Alison offers invaluable insights into the challenges and triumphs of entrepreneurship, including the significance of setting clear goals and maintaining a strong support network.  We also explore Alison's upcoming event, "Smash It Live," set to take place in January 2025. This event aims to empower entrepreneurs with actionable skills and confidence, and it marks her return to live, ticketed events after five years.  In addition, we consider the transformative power of awards in business. Alison recounts her own experience winning her first award, which opened doors to media opportunities and significantly boosted her credibility. She emphasizes that winning an award is just the beginning; it's what you do with that recognition that counts. Finally, we touch on the darker side of the coaching industry, where vulnerable individuals can be exploited by misleading promises of quick success. Alison's passion for ethical business practices shine through as she advocates for transparency and genuine support in the entrepreneurial community. This episode is packed with practical tips, heartfelt stories, and a wealth of knowledge making it a must-listen for anyone looking to navigate the world of business with confidence and integrity. Be sure to check out the links to Alison's upcoming event and her resources in the show notes!   {2:42} Alison's early career. {6:08} Why Alison started a business aged 46. {7:35} How she came to write a book. {9:25} Alison's return to live events. {13:10} Avoiding business BS. {14:20} Keeping it real. {16:35} Manipulation in the coaching space. {17:35} How not entering an award transformed Alison's thinking. {18:50} The impact of winning her first award. {21:00} Maximising your profile after an award win. {22:58} Being awarded an MBE. {25:23} Being invited to get involved in the Earthshot Prize by Prince William. {26:40} Doing a TedX talk. {28:07} Alison's top business tips. {31:54} The Amazon Prime TV Show.   Connect with Debbie at: https://thebusinessawardsshow.co.uk Connect with Alison: https://www.alisonedgar.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealisonedgarmbe/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alison.edgar.mbe LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ X: https://x.com/thealisonedgar TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thealisonedgarmbe Smash it Live!: https://www.smash-it.live/

Alison Edgar MBE is an expert in improving performance inside organisations. Throughout Alison's years advising entrepreneurial businesses, she has discovered important factors that make them successful. Alison takes these lessons on enhancing motivation, communication, and agility and shares them with enterprising businesses, helping them to break down silos, embrace change and enhance autonomy. In this weeks episode of Success School, Alison shares with Matt Hall her top tips on how to master sales in your business as well as sharing her journey into entrepreneurship later in life that led to her being awarded an MBE. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast channel!   Start your FREE 14 day trial in our Membership HERE: https://www.matthalllifecoach.co.uk/start1656771510677   And don't forget to get your ticket to our LIVE event on Saturday 6th January 2024 in Bradford. Here's the link you need: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/enhance-your-life-mindset-fitness-nutrition-seminar-tickets-732687878167?aff=oddtdtcreator   Follow Matt Hall at: Instagram: www.instagram.com/matthallofficial/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@matthallofficial11   Follow Alison Edgar MBE at: Instagram: www.instagram.com/thealisonedgarmbe/    

Olivia Grieman: Hi, and welcome to Book Club, a Sales Enablement PRO podcast. I’m Olivia Grieman. Sales enablement is a constantly evolving space and we’re here to help professionals stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices so they can be more effective in their jobs. Sales is a career where mindset really can make all the difference. From understanding customer behaviors to developing a sound process to crafting an effective strategy and to closing with confidence, success in sales is very much rooted in psychology. I’m so excited to have Alison Edgar, MBE, here to tell us a little bit more about this concept that she details in her book Secrets of Successful Sales. So with that, Allison, I’d love to pass it to you to tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background. Alison Edgar: Hi Olivia. Thank you so much for having me. I am Allison Edgar, MBE. Now, I’ll probably explain that before the book. In the UK, twice a year the then queen, now to be king, chooses a thousand people to be honored for specific things, and you can get them for charity, for sport, education, for pretty much anything. Mine is for being a member of the British Empire for Entrepreneurship and Business. In the US it gets confused a little bit because people think it’s an MBA, but it’s not. It’s an MBE. I am also the author of two books. The first one is called Secrets of Successful Sales, which we will be talking about today because it’s obviously about sales enablement. The other book is called SMASH IT!: The Art of Getting What YOU Want. I think it is interesting when people ask which order you should read the book in. I think actually Smash It is the prequel. It should have been written in the order of Secrets of Successful Sales, but yes, I’ve written two books. I think fundamentally, one of the things that I think will resonate with the audience is I actually love sales. I think that sales does evolve and there’s obviously new technology and there are things that can help us, but fundamentally, people buy people and they buy people like them. Hopefully, some of those things will come out today and just different ways that people can stay focused to improve their sales results. OG: Fantastic. Thank you for being here. Also, thank you for explaining what MBE means. I did not know that, and what an honor to be recognized for all of your amazing work. I do want to dig into the Secrets of Successful Sales book that you mentioned. What I really loved about the book is that it brings together psychology and sales to walk through a methodology to help others really achieve success in sales. I’d love to hear, from your perspective, what are some of the key principles from psychology that really do have a massive impact on success when applied to a sales strategy. AE: I pretty much think a lot of it is always the psychology behind it because you can have the best processes in the world, but if you’re not building strong relationships with different types of people, you’re alienating some of your customers and that affects your performance. I think that’s where when we look at what I use DISC, which is based on Carol Young’s psychology, and it’s based on colors. I think any of the psychology profiling tools, they get a bad reputation. Oh, you’re pigeonholing people. Oh, you’re putting them in boxes. You’re not. It’s really about self-awareness and adoption. It’s not about pigeonholing. Oh, task-focused introverts shouldn’t be in sales or introverts shouldn’t be in sales. It’s not, because actually some of those attributes are the best things, but I think it’s really building those strong relationships, and that does come from psychology. The other huge thing comes from your mindset and how you stay focused and stay positive, and how you become resilient. Ultimately sales are wrapped in rejection, and this is quite controversial, I don’t think that everybody has got the inner strength to make it in sales. It’s those skill sets, which again come back to how you become resilient, how you continue to focus when you have a bad day. That to me is all the psychology, and those are really high priorities when it comes to motivating yourself and actually getting sales results. OG: Absolutely. You talked about this a little bit as well, that there are a lot of different personalities that a salesperson can have, but not all people are cut out for sales. It’s a tough career. You mentioned that the most successful salespeople are what you call Stars, which is a set of attributes. I’d love to hear a little bit more about what it means to be a star and what it is about them that sets them apart from other types of sellers. AE: I believe that when you come into sales, again, I said not everybody’s cut out for sales, but if you’re in sales, I believe that everybody has the potential to become a star because it’s about learning new things. The S of the stars is to stay focused. So again, a lot of salespeople are quite easily distracted. I think that at the start of my career, I was quite easily distracted, but I learned those good habits. The T is tenacious. I think that if you look, a lot of that tenacity comes from rejection and how you handle that rejection. The other thing you’ve got is staying positive. Again, if you look at how you stay positive in situations a lot of time when it comes to negative thoughts, I believe a lot of negative thoughts come from fear, but also when things aren’t going according to plan, you’ll always have a group leader that’s trying to distract everybody and take their negativity with them, whereas actually, the stars can always stay positive. They switch off from the office gossip, they switch off from everything else. Then, that Resilience, so that really welcoming things, not going according to plan. Then, literally, I call it the chumba womba moment. There’s a song that was big in the US called Top Thumping. It’s from the nineties and it goes, “I get knocked down, but I get up again. Nothing’s ever gonna get me down.” I think a lot of people can sing that song and then go, oh yeah, but I can’t get back up again. The stars can. That’s what equals success. It’s not just one thing, it’s the combination of all of those thoughts. To me, a lot of those things are learned behaviors, and that’s why I believe that people can achieve that. It’s just about wanting to become a star as well. When we look at the mindset behind it, which comes back to psychology, Carol Dweck talks so much about this fixed and growth mindset. People say to me, Alison, if you could give a gift to everybody in the world, what would that gift be? Well, I would love to get a little box with a little ribbon. I can see it’s a bit like a Pandora jewelry box, and I’d love to put a growth mindset into that box, and I’d love to give it to everyone and go, look, you know what, you’ve got this. Growth mindset. It’s okay. You can pull yourself back up. It’s okay. You can overcome difficult situations. It’s okay. You can overcome rejection. I can’t give that to anyone. They have to want to receive that gift, and if they don’t want to receive that, then their mindset will always stay in a fixed state, which will always affect their performance, whether they’re in sales or any other department, because that affects how you live your life. OG: Absolutely. I am so glad that you brought up the growth mindset in Carol Dweck as well. I love that concept and I also love the song that you mentioned too, so that’s gonna be stuck in my head the rest of the day. Thank you for sharing that. AE: You’re gonna be chumba womba all day! OG: Exactly. The sales methodology that you walk through in your book has four key pillars, and I want to dig into each of them a little bit more with you. The first pillar is really understanding customer behaviors. I’d love to hear your advice on what sales professionals can do to get ahead of their competition by really understanding their customers better. AE: I think preparation and planning when it comes to understanding your customers. In the book I talk about the cross, and I think that that really is one of those fundamentals to life, not just sales or sales enablement or growth or performance. It’s understanding that some people are task-focused, other people are relationship focused, some people are introverted, and other people are extroverts. The DISC methodology puts colors behind that red, green, blue, and yellow. It’s not about pigeonholing and you’re more than one behavior, but really that deep understanding of yourself. For example, if you’re doing the planning and the research, tools like LinkedIn are amazing for that. Sometimes I feel that’s not particularly accurate, but we teach people using the methodology in the book to look at somebody’s profile picture, look at their bio, and look at their posting, and that will give you some idea. For example, unless it’s a set photo that your company’s made you use, a bit like the school day where the photographer comes in and everyone’s got the same photo, but usually, you’ve got free reign on selecting your photo on LinkedIn. You’ll find if it’s an extrovert’s photo, usually, they’re looking down the barrel of the lens, whereas if it’s an introvert, they’ll be way further back or they might be with somebody else, like their dog, or child. Even from that side of things, you know how to tailor your approach rather than just going in with the one size fits all message. Also, looking at their bio, is it written in the first, or is it written in the third? Look at how much of their profile on LinkedIn is filled in. If somebody’s relationship-focused, for example, a relationship-focused extrovert, we call that the yellow behavior type, it’ll be all about them and their achievements. If it’s an introverted person, they don’t really like to brag and they really don’t even like a humble brag. You’ll notice that it’s maybe written in the third, or it’s quite sparse on any achievements they’ve done. Again, it’s how you tailor that message and I think that’s where when we look at that cross, we tend to gravitate on the axis of the behaviors. All extroverts, all tasks, all relationships, all introverts, but a lot of the time the best sales performers, you don’t really know because ultimately they are the chameleon. They are the behavior of the person that they are with so that they build that strength. When I did the analysis on the top performers, that was one of the things that really came so highly to the forefront of what the top performers did. That’s what the research came up with. OG: That’s fantastic. I love your advice around just even those little things that can make the difference in how you’re able to tailor a conversation and some of those clues as well into their personality type with just their activity on social media and on LinkedIn. The second pillar that you mentioned in your book is the sales process, and I’d love to hear your perspective on what a good sales process looks like. AE: It’s interesting because if you look at the sales process, people talk about the evolution of sales and how it’s contemporary. I do think a lot of the CRMs now do quite a lot of the research for you to save time. Ultimately time is the biggest commodity, but I don’t really think the process has changed that much over the last maybe 20, 30, 40 years, if not longer. As soon as people start to sell, if we look, the process that I use, which I cover in the book, is things like doing your research. Really knowing the person that you’re talking to, be organized and not just even organized in your approach to sales, but things like, we are really passionate about having an empty inbox and having a really clean CRM. The amount of people I’ve seen with messy inboxes, the CRM is filthy dirty, like they wouldn’t even know if they’d had a cancellation pop-up because they’re not in control of that. These are things that, not just on a daily basis, but in general it’s good sales hygiene to have a clean workspace and a clean mind. That’s what helps you to stay focused again, like the stars. Then you’ve got what I call the reduction, but it’s really starting to engage that person in something that’s of interest to them. That’s where I talk about the Titanic. We’re on the Titanic, and we’re all about to sink, who’s the first person you want to save? Well, it’s yourself, isn’t it? Ultimately, we do the fight, flight, or freeze, but so many salespeople, when they have that initial conversation, we talk about how amazing the product is. Ultimately the customer doesn’t care. They only care about what’s in it for them. That’s where I think that engagement and knowing them more matters. Starting to build relationships and then moving things across into that business relationship. Now I know that, again, time is limited. If that’s a cold call or a lead, that conversation with a task-focused person is going to ruin the relationship. That’s why it’s so important to know those behaviors because if you pitch that initially wrong, you’ve blown it already. A lot of the decision-makers are task-focused. That’s a good example of what not to do with a task-focused person, but a great example of what to do with a relationship-focused person. So many people don’t tailor their approach. That one reduction really starts to get people engaged with you because you’re talking about what’s in it for them. Then the next thing, and I think, oh, this should be the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not. The reason I talk about this is I get sales calls from people who are trying to pitch to me, and it’s hopeless. A lot of them just don’t have the process and they talk and they talk and they talk. I know this sounds really bad, but sometimes I time them. If I get a sales call coming in, I start my timer to see how long they talk at me before they even engage with me. The main thing is really great open questions. It is basic questions like who, what, why, where, when, and how. Then, listen to the answer, and then again, who, what, why, where, when, and how. It’s just following that. Another thing though, I do see people doing incorrectly in sales, and I talk about this in the book, is setting the table. If somebody doesn’t know why you’re asking those questions, and especially if they’re around finance, numbers, or existing suppliers, sometimes people can be a wee bit loath to give you that information. Whereas if you said, ‘Look, you know what, I’ve got this product, I think it’d be really a benefit. We work with a lot of people in your area and we’ve really helped them to be more efficient or get better results. This may or may not be relevant, but to be able to sort of qualify this for you and see if we can help, I just have to ask some questions. It’ll take about 20 minutes and again. We’ll touch on things like existing suppliers, how does that sound to you?' This really gets them to talk and engage. The next part is listening and then going for the close if you can at this stage. This is where a lot of people I see doing it wrong, that they’re not maybe doing a two-step process. If it’s, say a SAS product and you’re trying to sell the demo, that’s all you’re selling. Saying something like, ‘Well, what we can do is have a look. You’ve already got something. You’ve said that you’re not a hundred percent satisfied. What we can do is do the demo and see how that compares and how that would be of benefit to you. When are you available for that, Tuesday or Wednesday?' It’s breaking that sale down, whereas what I see a lot is just people just, they’re not following any process. They’re just literally shooting for a target and hoping it hits. That’s the difference. It’s not teaching people to sell. The book helps people to be top performers. What do the top performers do? What do the stars do? That’s where it’s following that process. OG: Absolutely. I love how you explained not only what does a good sales process look like, but what it does not look like? What are some of those mistakes that salespeople often make? Thank you for walking through that, that was very actionable for our audience as well. The third pillar is around strategy. Also of our audience, many of them are sales enablement practitioners, I’d love to hear your advice on how can enablement really support sales leaders in creating an effective sales strategy. AE: I think a lot of it is networking. I don’t mean, oh, you pitch up in a room and you meet people, it’s really starting to become connected to the right people. In the book, I talk about the Emma Jones strategy. She was the key leader in this space and like literally I would go out of my way to be able to help. I would run events for her and again, non-paid, but it really grew my profile. Do you know Dan Disney? OG: Yes, he has spoken at one of our events. AE: He’s amazing, and I think he really is a role model as far as the sales space goes because he created his own profile. What he did was he was working in a sales role, but he created the daily sales, which again grew his profile. He then became connected to other people that might want to hear what he said. He then extended his knowledge to LinkedIn, and he’s now an influencer in that space. I think going back in the day, it was just dial-outs. Your KPI was around how many calls you would make. Now, I think social selling is really impactful. It’s the balance between having conversations on social media and commenting on people’s posts on social media, but also genuinely not being afraid to pick up the phone either or have zoomed. Coming back to the stars, that’s what they would do. So many people hide behind social media, hide behind emails, and don’t pick up the phone. It’s the balance of those things that really help you to achieve your strategy. OG: Just to close the conversation here, I want to go back to something that we talked about at the start and throughout, but it was one of the first things that you mentioned. With the final pillar being confidence, you mentioned the importance of mindset and the role that mindset plays in successful sales strategies. I’d love to hear a little bit more about specifically how mindset helps to build confidence, and then how confidence on the inverse of that helps to influence sales success. AE: I can’t even emphasize how important it is. Our mind is the most powerful thing in sales. I believe that that comes back to the cross because if you’re more introverted, you would rather hide behind emails because you’ll start to worry, oh, what happens if they shout at me? What happens if it’s an inconvenient time? You’re catastrophizing in your head of all the things that can go wrong and that’s where I think the top performers really believe that people do want to hear from them. They genuinely believe that their product or service is actually the best out there in the market. I think it’s really the importance of that self-belief in your product. If you don’t believe in the product that you’re selling and you don’t have that ultimate belief, you’re working for the wrong company. I look at my transition from working for an organization into setting up my own business. I was in a room and the CEO of the company said that the Google thing will never catch on. When you have that disbelief in the product that you sell, you’re just lying to yourself. I’m now working with some of the biggest brands in the world. I work with Adobe, Amazon, Moe, Hennessy, and the Champagne brand. EasyJet, the airline. I’m working with those and I’m selling every day. People might sit and go, oh yeah, she’s not really in sales anymore, but I started a business with no customers and I have to literally follow everything that I teach and ultimately have to believe that I am the best speaker for their events. I have to believe that my books are going to change people’s lives, and that’s what gives me confidence. Yet we get imposter syndrome at times. When I landed some of these big brands, I’m like, o, why do they want me? They probably want somebody that’s got more experience. Even at the peak of your game, you still have these thoughts, so you have to change those thoughts. You have that conversation in your head, you’re not good enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not going to want to hear from me. They’ve got somebody else. They’ve got something. You’ve got to literally say to the voice in your head, stop. Like, stop now. You are good enough. You are worthy enough, you have got this. Your product can change lives. It changes how you actually feel like your physiological self changes because if it’s negative, you start to feel deflated and down and worried and anxious, and that comes across in your tone, in your voice. If you really have that belief and that self-belief, you feel quite excited. You’re like, I’m ready. I’m gonna smash this, I’m gonna do this. This is the difference between those positive behaviors and negative behaviors. They are actually influenced by your brain rather than external factors. I talk about in the book, I look in the mirror and I see the supermodel of sales, and because I see the supermodel of sales, that’s what other people see. It’s about that belief in yourself and really looking in the mirror and going, do you know what? I’m really great at what I do. I think there’s a thin line between confidence and cockiness, but confidence is what people can sense in you and really will believe in you because if you don’t believe in yourself, other people won’t believe in you either. OG: That is wonderful advice. I’m gonna start giving myself pep talks in the mirror as well. Oh, Alison, thank you so much for this conversation. I loved learning from you. I’m so excited for our audience to hear this. AE: Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you so much for having me. OG: To our audience, we absolutely recommend checking out Alison’s books. We will include links to both of them in the transcript and thanks for listening. For more insights, tips, and expertise from sales enablement leaders, visit salesenablement.pro, and if there’s something you’d like to share or a topic that you’d like to learn more about, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Olivia Grieman: Hi, and welcome to Book Club, a Sales Enablement PRO podcast. I’m Olivia Grieman. Sales enablement is a constantly evolving space and we’re here to help professionals stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices so they can be more effective in their jobs. Sales is a career where mindset really can make all the difference. From understanding customer behaviors to developing a sound process to crafting an effective strategy and to closing with confidence, success in sales is very much rooted in psychology. I’m so excited to have Alison Edgar, MBE, here to tell us a little bit more about this concept that she details in her book Secrets of Successful Sales. So with that, Allison, I’d love to pass it to you to tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background. Alison Edgar: Hi Olivia. Thank you so much for having me. I am Allison Edgar, MBE. Now, I’ll probably explain that before the book. In the UK, twice a year the then queen, now to be king, chooses a thousand people to be honored for specific things, and you can get them for charity, for sport, education, for pretty much anything. Mine is for being a member of the British Empire for Entrepreneurship and Business. In the US it gets confused a little bit because people think it’s an MBA, but it’s not. It’s an MBE. I am also the author of two books. The first one is called Secrets of Successful Sales, which we will be talking about today because it’s obviously about sales enablement. The other book is called SMASH IT!: The Art of Getting What YOU Want. I think it is interesting when people ask which order you should read the book in. I think actually Smash It is the prequel. It should have been written in the order of Secrets of Successful Sales, but yes, I’ve written two books. I think fundamentally, one of the things that I think will resonate with the audience is I actually love sales. I think that sales does evolve and there’s obviously new technology and there are things that can help us, but fundamentally, people buy people and they buy people like them. Hopefully, some of those things will come out today and just different ways that people can stay focused to improve their sales results. OG: Fantastic. Thank you for being here. Also, thank you for explaining what MBE means. I did not know that, and what an honor to be recognized for all of your amazing work. I do want to dig into the Secrets of Successful Sales book that you mentioned. What I really loved about the book is that it brings together psychology and sales to walk through a methodology to help others really achieve success in sales. I’d love to hear, from your perspective, what are some of the key principles from psychology that really do have a massive impact on success when applied to a sales strategy. AE: I pretty much think a lot of it is always the psychology behind it because you can have the best processes in the world, but if you’re not building strong relationships with different types of people, you’re alienating some of your customers and that affects your performance. I think that’s where when we look at what I use DISC, which is based on Carol Young’s psychology, and it’s based on colors. I think any of the psychology profiling tools, they get a bad reputation. Oh, you’re pigeonholing people. Oh, you’re putting them in boxes. You’re not. It’s really about self-awareness and adoption. It’s not about pigeonholing. Oh, task-focused introverts shouldn’t be in sales or introverts shouldn’t be in sales. It’s not, because actually some of those attributes are the best things, but I think it’s really building those strong relationships, and that does come from psychology. The other huge thing comes from your mindset and how you stay focused and stay positive, and how you become resilient. Ultimately sales are wrapped in rejection, and this is quite controversial, I don’t think that everybody has got the inner strength to make it in sales. It’s those skill sets, which again come back to how you become resilient, how you continue to focus when you have a bad day. That to me is all the psychology, and those are really high priorities when it comes to motivating yourself and actually getting sales results. OG: Absolutely. You talked about this a little bit as well, that there are a lot of different personalities that a salesperson can have, but not all people are cut out for sales. It’s a tough career. You mentioned that the most successful salespeople are what you call Stars, which is a set of attributes. I’d love to hear a little bit more about what it means to be a star and what it is about them that sets them apart from other types of sellers. AE: I believe that when you come into sales, again, I said not everybody’s cut out for sales, but if you’re in sales, I believe that everybody has the potential to become a star because it’s about learning new things. The S of the stars is to stay focused. So again, a lot of salespeople are quite easily distracted. I think that at the start of my career, I was quite easily distracted, but I learned those good habits. The T is tenacious. I think that if you look, a lot of that tenacity comes from rejection and how you handle that rejection. The other thing you’ve got is staying positive. Again, if you look at how you stay positive in situations a lot of time when it comes to negative thoughts, I believe a lot of negative thoughts come from fear, but also when things aren’t going according to plan, you’ll always have a group leader that’s trying to distract everybody and take their negativity with them, whereas actually, the stars can always stay positive. They switch off from the office gossip, they switch off from everything else. Then, that Resilience, so that really welcoming things, not going according to plan. Then, literally, I call it the chumba womba moment. There’s a song that was big in the US called Top Thumping. It’s from the nineties and it goes, “I get knocked down, but I get up again. Nothing’s ever gonna get me down.” I think a lot of people can sing that song and then go, oh yeah, but I can’t get back up again. The stars can. That’s what equals success. It’s not just one thing, it’s the combination of all of those thoughts. To me, a lot of those things are learned behaviors, and that’s why I believe that people can achieve that. It’s just about wanting to become a star as well. When we look at the mindset behind it, which comes back to psychology, Carol Dweck talks so much about this fixed and growth mindset. People say to me, Alison, if you could give a gift to everybody in the world, what would that gift be? Well, I would love to get a little box with a little ribbon. I can see it’s a bit like a Pandora jewelry box, and I’d love to put a growth mindset into that box, and I’d love to give it to everyone and go, look, you know what, you’ve got this. Growth mindset. It’s okay. You can pull yourself back up. It’s okay. You can overcome difficult situations. It’s okay. You can overcome rejection. I can’t give that to anyone. They have to want to receive that gift, and if they don’t want to receive that, then their mindset will always stay in a fixed state, which will always affect their performance, whether they’re in sales or any other department, because that affects how you live your life. OG: Absolutely. I am so glad that you brought up the growth mindset in Carol Dweck as well. I love that concept and I also love the song that you mentioned too, so that’s gonna be stuck in my head the rest of the day. Thank you for sharing that. AE: You’re gonna be chumba womba all day! OG: Exactly. The sales methodology that you walk through in your book has four key pillars, and I want to dig into each of them a little bit more with you. The first pillar is really understanding customer behaviors. I’d love to hear your advice on what sales professionals can do to get ahead of their competition by really understanding their customers better. AE: I think preparation and planning when it comes to understanding your customers. In the book I talk about the cross, and I think that that really is one of those fundamentals to life, not just sales or sales enablement or growth or performance. It’s understanding that some people are task-focused, other people are relationship focused, some people are introverted, and other people are extroverts. The DISC methodology puts colors behind that red, green, blue, and yellow. It’s not about pigeonholing and you’re more than one behavior, but really that deep understanding of yourself. For example, if you’re doing the planning and the research, tools like LinkedIn are amazing for that. Sometimes I feel that’s not particularly accurate, but we teach people using the methodology in the book to look at somebody’s profile picture, look at their bio, and look at their posting, and that will give you some idea. For example, unless it’s a set photo that your company’s made you use, a bit like the school day where the photographer comes in and everyone’s got the same photo, but usually, you’ve got free reign on selecting your photo on LinkedIn. You’ll find if it’s an extrovert’s photo, usually, they’re looking down the barrel of the lens, whereas if it’s an introvert, they’ll be way further back or they might be with somebody else, like their dog, or child. Even from that side of things, you know how to tailor your approach rather than just going in with the one size fits all message. Also, looking at their bio, is it written in the first, or is it written in the third? Look at how much of their profile on LinkedIn is filled in. If somebody’s relationship-focused, for example, a relationship-focused extrovert, we call that the yellow behavior type, it’ll be all about them and their achievements. If it’s an introverted person, they don’t really like to brag and they really don’t even like a humble brag. You’ll notice that it’s maybe written in the third, or it’s quite sparse on any achievements they’ve done. Again, it’s how you tailor that message and I think that’s where when we look at that cross, we tend to gravitate on the axis of the behaviors. All extroverts, all tasks, all relationships, all introverts, but a lot of the time the best sales performers, you don’t really know because ultimately they are the chameleon. They are the behavior of the person that they are with so that they build that strength. When I did the analysis on the top performers, that was one of the things that really came so highly to the forefront of what the top performers did. That’s what the research came up with. OG: That’s fantastic. I love your advice around just even those little things that can make the difference in how you’re able to tailor a conversation and some of those clues as well into their personality type with just their activity on social media and on LinkedIn. The second pillar that you mentioned in your book is the sales process, and I’d love to hear your perspective on what a good sales process looks like. AE: It’s interesting because if you look at the sales process, people talk about the evolution of sales and how it’s contemporary. I do think a lot of the CRMs now do quite a lot of the research for you to save time. Ultimately time is the biggest commodity, but I don’t really think the process has changed that much over the last maybe 20, 30, 40 years, if not longer. As soon as people start to sell, if we look, the process that I use, which I cover in the book, is things like doing your research. Really knowing the person that you’re talking to, be organized and not just even organized in your approach to sales, but things like, we are really passionate about having an empty inbox and having a really clean CRM. The amount of people I’ve seen with messy inboxes, the CRM is filthy dirty, like they wouldn’t even know if they’d had a cancellation pop-up because they’re not in control of that. These are things that, not just on a daily basis, but in general it’s good sales hygiene to have a clean workspace and a clean mind. That’s what helps you to stay focused again, like the stars. Then you’ve got what I call the reduction, but it’s really starting to engage that person in something that’s of interest to them. That’s where I talk about the Titanic. We’re on the Titanic, and we’re all about to sink, who’s the first person you want to save? Well, it’s yourself, isn’t it? Ultimately, we do the fight, flight, or freeze, but so many salespeople, when they have that initial conversation, we talk about how amazing the product is. Ultimately the customer doesn’t care. They only care about what’s in it for them. That’s where I think that engagement and knowing them more matters. Starting to build relationships and then moving things across into that business relationship. Now I know that, again, time is limited. If that’s a cold call or a lead, that conversation with a task-focused person is going to ruin the relationship. That’s why it’s so important to know those behaviors because if you pitch that initially wrong, you’ve blown it already. A lot of the decision-makers are task-focused. That’s a good example of what not to do with a task-focused person, but a great example of what to do with a relationship-focused person. So many people don’t tailor their approach. That one reduction really starts to get people engaged with you because you’re talking about what’s in it for them. Then the next thing, and I think, oh, this should be the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not. The reason I talk about this is I get sales calls from people who are trying to pitch to me, and it’s hopeless. A lot of them just don’t have the process and they talk and they talk and they talk. I know this sounds really bad, but sometimes I time them. If I get a sales call coming in, I start my timer to see how long they talk at me before they even engage with me. The main thing is really great open questions. It is basic questions like who, what, why, where, when, and how. Then, listen to the answer, and then again, who, what, why, where, when, and how. It’s just following that. Another thing though, I do see people doing incorrectly in sales, and I talk about this in the book, is setting the table. If somebody doesn’t know why you’re asking those questions, and especially if they’re around finance, numbers, or existing suppliers, sometimes people can be a wee bit loath to give you that information. Whereas if you said, ‘Look, you know what, I’ve got this product, I think it’d be really a benefit. We work with a lot of people in your area and we’ve really helped them to be more efficient or get better results. This may or may not be relevant, but to be able to sort of qualify this for you and see if we can help, I just have to ask some questions. It’ll take about 20 minutes and again. We’ll touch on things like existing suppliers, how does that sound to you?' This really gets them to talk and engage. The next part is listening and then going for the close if you can at this stage. This is where a lot of people I see doing it wrong, that they’re not maybe doing a two-step process. If it’s, say a SAS product and you’re trying to sell the demo, that’s all you’re selling. Saying something like, ‘Well, what we can do is have a look. You’ve already got something. You’ve said that you’re not a hundred percent satisfied. What we can do is do the demo and see how that compares and how that would be of benefit to you. When are you available for that, Tuesday or Wednesday?' It’s breaking that sale down, whereas what I see a lot is just people just, they’re not following any process. They’re just literally shooting for a target and hoping it hits. That’s the difference. It’s not teaching people to sell. The book helps people to be top performers. What do the top performers do? What do the stars do? That’s where it’s following that process. OG: Absolutely. I love how you explained not only what does a good sales process look like, but what it does not look like? What are some of those mistakes that salespeople often make? Thank you for walking through that, that was very actionable for our audience as well. The third pillar is around strategy. Also of our audience, many of them are sales enablement practitioners, I’d love to hear your advice on how can enablement really support sales leaders in creating an effective sales strategy. AE: I think a lot of it is networking. I don’t mean, oh, you pitch up in a room and you meet people, it’s really starting to become connected to the right people. In the book, I talk about the Emma Jones strategy. She was the key leader in this space and like literally I would go out of my way to be able to help. I would run events for her and again, non-paid, but it really grew my profile. Do you know Dan Disney? OG: Yes, he has spoken at one of our events. AE: He’s amazing, and I think he really is a role model as far as the sales space goes because he created his own profile. What he did was he was working in a sales role, but he created the daily sales, which again grew his profile. He then became connected to other people that might want to hear what he said. He then extended his knowledge to LinkedIn, and he’s now an influencer in that space. I think going back in the day, it was just dial-outs. Your KPI was around how many calls you would make. Now, I think social selling is really impactful. It’s the balance between having conversations on social media and commenting on people’s posts on social media, but also genuinely not being afraid to pick up the phone either or have zoomed. Coming back to the stars, that’s what they would do. So many people hide behind social media, hide behind emails, and don’t pick up the phone. It’s the balance of those things that really help you to achieve your strategy. OG: Just to close the conversation here, I want to go back to something that we talked about at the start and throughout, but it was one of the first things that you mentioned. With the final pillar being confidence, you mentioned the importance of mindset and the role that mindset plays in successful sales strategies. I’d love to hear a little bit more about specifically how mindset helps to build confidence, and then how confidence on the inverse of that helps to influence sales success. AE: I can’t even emphasize how important it is. Our mind is the most powerful thing in sales. I believe that that comes back to the cross because if you’re more introverted, you would rather hide behind emails because you’ll start to worry, oh, what happens if they shout at me? What happens if it’s an inconvenient time? You’re catastrophizing in your head of all the things that can go wrong and that’s where I think the top performers really believe that people do want to hear from them. They genuinely believe that their product or service is actually the best out there in the market. I think it’s really the importance of that self-belief in your product. If you don’t believe in the product that you’re selling and you don’t have that ultimate belief, you’re working for the wrong company. I look at my transition from working for an organization into setting up my own business. I was in a room and the CEO of the company said that the Google thing will never catch on. When you have that disbelief in the product that you sell, you’re just lying to yourself. I’m now working with some of the biggest brands in the world. I work with Adobe, Amazon, Moe, Hennessy, and the Champagne brand. EasyJet, the airline. I’m working with those and I’m selling every day. People might sit and go, oh yeah, she’s not really in sales anymore, but I started a business with no customers and I have to literally follow everything that I teach and ultimately have to believe that I am the best speaker for their events. I have to believe that my books are going to change people’s lives, and that’s what gives me confidence. Yet we get imposter syndrome at times. When I landed some of these big brands, I’m like, o, why do they want me? They probably want somebody that’s got more experience. Even at the peak of your game, you still have these thoughts, so you have to change those thoughts. You have that conversation in your head, you’re not good enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not going to want to hear from me. They’ve got somebody else. They’ve got something. You’ve got to literally say to the voice in your head, stop. Like, stop now. You are good enough. You are worthy enough, you have got this. Your product can change lives. It changes how you actually feel like your physiological self changes because if it’s negative, you start to feel deflated and down and worried and anxious, and that comes across in your tone, in your voice. If you really have that belief and that self-belief, you feel quite excited. You’re like, I’m ready. I’m gonna smash this, I’m gonna do this. This is the difference between those positive behaviors and negative behaviors. They are actually influenced by your brain rather than external factors. I talk about in the book, I look in the mirror and I see the supermodel of sales, and because I see the supermodel of sales, that’s what other people see. It’s about that belief in yourself and really looking in the mirror and going, do you know what? I’m really great at what I do. I think there’s a thin line between confidence and cockiness, but confidence is what people can sense in you and really will believe in you because if you don’t believe in yourself, other people won’t believe in you either. OG: That is wonderful advice. I’m gonna start giving myself pep talks in the mirror as well. Oh, Alison, thank you so much for this conversation. I loved learning from you. I’m so excited for our audience to hear this. AE: Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you so much for having me. OG: To our audience, we absolutely recommend checking out Alison’s books. We will include links to both of them in the transcript and thanks for listening. For more insights, tips, and expertise from sales enablement leaders, visit salesenablement.pro, and if there’s something you’d like to share or a topic that you’d like to learn more about, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

The Art of Getting what you want.  How can you truly get what you want?  How do you work this out?  Why does it matter and how will it help you to identify your goals?  Join Em and Alison as they chat all things Getting What you want and so much more including ducks holding kettles… Follow Alison: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thealisonedgar/  Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thealisonedgarmbe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thealisonedgar About Alison Edgar, MBE: “Alison delivers clear business impact, with a human touch and personable approach.” In a world full of conference speakers, Alison Edgar MBE is a relatable figure for audiences around the globe, providing them with lasting impact and inspiration that resonates, not only from a workplace situation, but their whole lives. Working in the corporate world until she was age 46, Alison understands first hand the challenges that delegates face on a daily basis. Alison champions actionable takeaways for every audience, and her upbeat, passionate delivery style rubs off on even the most skeptical audience members. Alison is a sought-after media contributor, and recently became a mentor/boardroom judge for a new business TV show that launched on Amazon Prime in May.

In this week's episode, I'm joined by Alison Edgar (MBE).Alison is a Business Advisor, Motivational Speaker and the Author of the best-selling book "SMASH IT!: The Art of Getting What YOU Want". Here, she talks how she managed to become a best-selling author despite lifelong struggles with dyslexia; why she prefers to visualise her goals and the methods she uses to achieve them; and why having a growth mindset is so vital to continual success and personal evolution.________________________________________________________________________Alison Edgar (MBE) can be found here:LinkedIn TwitterWebsiteFacebook________________________________________________________________________Doug Bennett can be found here:Website: http://dougbennett.co.uk/Email: doug@dougbennett.co.ukLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialdoug/Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinancialDougDownload Your "Ten-Step Guide To Financial Freedom" Here:https://bit.ly/Struggle-SuccessBOOKS:Goals Do Come True is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3phcy6ZThink Simple, Win Big is now live and available to buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Simple-Win-Big-Business/ Enjoy, and come back for the latest podcast each Wednesday. Thank you for listening. 

In this episode, Jeannette speaks with Alison Edgar MBE, a renowned public speaker, award-winning author, and entrepreneur who now teaches others how to use her out-of-the-box approach to transform their businesses. They talk about not letting imposter syndrome stop you. How to reframe the negatives, take ownership of your life and get over the fear of doing something new. Alison also shares the methods she uses to overcome a fear of public speaking, and to create and remember impactful speeches despite being dyslexic.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Never underestimate the value of the skills you learn doing those first menial jobs. If you are not good at academia don´t worry it is not necessary for success. Learn to reframe negatives into positives. If you don´t you will hold yourself back. Focus on what you are good at but continue to learn and try new things. If something is not working, stop and try something else.  With public speaking, timing is everything.  Use breathing to control your nerves and help your words to have more impact. This works for conversations as well as for public speaking. Doing what you love, the thing you were born to do energises you. You are only on this planet for a short while, don't waste your time looking back thinking about things you wish you had done. When you fail you will feel bad, but don't allow yourself to stay in that mindset. Surround yourself with people that energise you. BEST MOMENTS ‘Never let the voice (self-doubt) win. If you do, you´re never really going to be happy because you´re always going to be focusing on the wrong things. ´ ‘If you haven't brought your heart rate down, you will not be able to make that massive impact with your words.' ‘I shoot from the hip, always tell the truth. Whether it is what people want to hear or not. I am not programmed to lie.' ‘Your version of brave, bold, brilliant could be completely different to somebody else´s.'   This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It's never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you'd like to join Jeannette's FREE Business Impact Seminar just DM Jeannette at info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com or sign up via Jeannette's linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot    VALUABLE RESOURCES Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970   EPISODE RESOURCES Secrets of Successful Sales by Alison Edgar - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-of-Successful-Sales/dp/B07H99NJYC/ SMASH IT!: The Art of Getting What You Want by Alison Edgar - https://www.amazon.co.uk/SMASH-Art-Getting-What-Want/dp/1784529389/ SMASH IT! App - https://www.smashitbook.com/app Websites: https://www.smashittraining.com/ and https://www.alisonedgar.com/   ABOUT THE GUEST Alison Edgar MBE also known as “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” to a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, brings a matchless amalgamation of outside-of-the-box thinking, insight, and knowledge to large organisations. Starting her business at age 46, Alison was in the shoes of the delegates for most of her life. In a world full of conference speakers, she is a relatable figure for audiences around the globe providing them with lasting impact. She champions that no barrier should hold you back from achieving your goals, be it age, race, gender, or disability.  Her teachings have pioneered culture change, enhanced performance, and transformed mindsets within her five-star global clientele such as Sky, Würth, EasyJet, and The Discovery Channel, where she has delivered her world-class ‘Intrapreneurship' methodology to enhance the development of teams by helping employees to think like entrepreneurs. Other clients include The European Commission, The National Lottery, and SimpliSafe.  In 2020, Alison received an MBE for recognition of her long-term services to entrepreneurship and business, which continues to inspire her methodologies. She is a contributor to BBC TV and Radio and has recently become a business mentor on a new Amazon Prime UK & US TV show airing in 2022. A dyslexic author of two international best-selling books, ‘Secrets of Successful Sales' and ‘SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want,' Alison has mastered the balance of how to enhance readers' personal and professional development. Her debut book was not only a WHSmith Top Ten Business Book but named one of the top books written by a woman in 2019 by The Independent.  Based on her books and TEDx, Alison's talks motivate the audience to stop procrastinating, take action, and ultimately ‘SMASH IT!' Using unique and contemporary methods combined with her energetic and witty delivery style Alison never fails to wow the audience.   ABOUT THE HOST Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development. Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.    CONTACT THE HOST Jeannette's linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Facebook - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/ Email - info@jeannettelinfootassociates.com   Podcast Description Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big' international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true' to yourself is the order of the day.business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfootSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's guest is Alison Edgar MBE known as the ‘The Entrepreneurs Godmother' helping businesses and entrepreneurs to grow, including The Apprentice & Dragons Den winners with their businesses. She is also the author of bestselling book SMASH IT! The art of getting what you want. Instead of sitting around during the pandemic, she decided to embrace the lockdown and write her best-selling book ‘SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want', which helped grow the her own business to new levels!As a child she was a very confident and precocious child. She grew up working class in a block of flats in Clydebank, Scotland but the lack of money in her family was made up for with lots of love from my parents. Growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia, she always thought that she was different to everyone else. She struggled in some of her lessons, especially English, but her family celebrated her C grades as if they were A*'s!Leaving home at 19, she had a plan to travel the world for 6 months. She loved travelling so much that she moved to Cape town at 21 and before she knew it 6 months had turned into 6 years.Having her two sons was a game changer for her. Her first birth was very traumatic, and she nearly lost her life. Thankfully, after three months she got better and was discharged from hospital. This made her rethink the direction of her life and made her crave a change.Leaving her corporate job – and her comfort zone - at 46 years old, she decided it was time for a new direction. She set up her first business ‘Sales Coaching Solutions' and gave it her all. She realised that she had a passion for helping businesses and entrepreneurs to grow so a few years after this she set up ‘The Entrepreneurs Godmother' and helped many people including The Apprentice & Dragons Den winners with their businesses.Fast forward to 2022 and she runs two businesses, ‘SMASH IT! Training' and ‘Alison Edgar MBE – Keynote Speaker'. Both businesses are designed to help others in different aspects of their lives. SMASH IT! Training helps teams to flourish with contemporary training and coaching. We offer commination training, leadership training, sales training and much more.  Alison Edgar MBE - Keynote Speaker offers motivational speaking at events to help inspire and invigorate audiences of teams or entrepreneurs.She defines courage as the ability to not be afraid to fail. So many people fear change due to the risk of failing, but in reality, it is our only constant. Change is the only thing that we can guarantee will happen to us throughout our lives, so why live in fear of it? Not fearing change and learning to embrace it is one of the most courageous things that you can do.Thanks Alison for inspiring entrepreneurs and business owners to get the lives they want and the futures they dream of. Thanks also for showing us how to Smash it! In our lives and get ourselves to the next level. You can find out more about Alison's work on https://www.alisonedgar.com/ and follow her on Linkedin @AlisonEdgarMBEJoin Lou on LinkedinFollow her @brave_newgirl on Instagram and get her books Brave New Girl- How to be Fearless, FEAR LESS and her Internationally Bestselling book DARE TO SHARE on Amazon or Waterstones or Barnes & Noble. UK & US versions available.Lou is the founder of Brave New Girl Media putting your story in the spotlight, showcasing your vision on video and supercharging your impact on global podcasts  https://bravenewgirlmedia.comMusic by Melody LoopsSupport the show

Episode description On this week's episode of the podcast, Andrew meets online with sales expert, motivational speaker, and author Alison Edgar MBE. In the episode, Andrew and Alison discuss how we should build the confidence of neurodiverse children, Andrew asks Alison if the education system outdated, and Alison reveals the secret to getting what you want. Top quotes “Too many people search for that other half of themselves, that other person, to make them happy. We came into the world on our own. We're going to go out on our own. We have to make that happiness ourselves.” - Alison “People always say that they're one half and their partner is the other half. But if you're not complete yourself eventually you'l' be empty.” - Andrew About the guest Alison Edgar MBE aka **‘**The Entrepreneur's Godmother' is Managing Director of Sales Coaching Solutions, as well as an author and entrepreneur. In 2011, Alison started her own business: ‘Sales Coaching Solutions' aiming to train and empower small business and startups for succeeding. In 2017, Alison wrote her first book that would become WHSmith Top Ten and Amazon Best Seller: ‘Secrets of Successful Sales'. The book has been recognised by The Independent as one of the top business books written by a woman. In 2020, she launched her new book ‘SMASH IT: The Art of Getting What YOU Want'. A book all about how you can achieve your dreams. She has featured in numerous publications including The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and Prima Magazine. In 2020, Alison received an MBE for recognition of her long-term work within entrepreneurship and business. About the host The Invisible Gift is hosted by entrepreneur and dyslexic, Andrew Kitley. With twenty years experience, Andrew Kitley has worked his way up the metaphorical and literal ladder to become Managing Director of Kitall: an engineering firm. Under Andrew's guidance, Kitall is now one of the most sought after names to complete complex engineering projects in the UK. In each episode of The Invisible Gift, Andrew seeks the advice and inspiration of a fellow trailblazer who has defied the odds to achieve the extraordinary - turning the challenge of neurodiversity into a gift. Resources https://www.kitall.co.uk/ (https://www.kitall.co.uk/) https://www.onefineplay.com/ (https://www.onefineplay.com/) https://www.alisonedgar.com/ (https://www.alisonedgar.com/)

Alison Edgar MBE & Gillian Whitney chat about: It's Never Too Late to Smash Your Goals. Alison knows a thing or two about goal setting. Based in England, Alison is the Founding Director of SMASH IT! Training and author of the book: SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want Leaving the world of blue-chip sales in 2014, Alison set up her own business to work with entrepreneurs, start-ups and teams. She was crowned ‘The Entrepreneurs Godmother' by a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs including Dragon's Den and Apprentice winners. In recognition of her services to Entrepreneurship and Business, she was honoured with an MBE in 2020. She was also invited to attend the Queen's Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace and was twice named one of the UK's Top Ten business advisers. Alison also regularly consults with Downing Street to give her opinions on the business landscape. For more information: videoeasypeasy.com Gillian Whitney https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillianwhitney/ Alison Edgar MBE https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/

An inspirational and motivational episode where Christina interviews her second MBE guest, Alison Edgar. Alison is a sales and marketing powerhouse, she is also a speaker, mentor and bestselling author. Known to many as the ‘entrepreneurs Godmother’ Alison has worked with many start-ups including Dragons Den winners, right up to large corporate companies such as SKY and EasyJet. Alison brings her breadth and depth of knowledge to this episode and talks to Christina about women in business, her unique perspectives on sales and marketing and delves into the importance of mindset and ethics. KEY TAKEAWAYS Alison is an author of two bestselling books. Her first book, The Secret to Success, was based on the top performers and sellers of organisations, which most of the time was and still is women. Only 5% of all books on sales are written by women, even though at least 50% of sales are by women. Women sell differently, they have a unique way of building relationships and emotional intelligence and this is reflected in their performance. Standing out is great but you want to stand out for the right reasons. Alison believes that this can often be the difference between men and women. She doesn’t care about everyone knowing who she is, she is proud to be known for the right things: practical sales, positivity, authenticity and following through. Alison and Christina are both passionate about the concept of intrapreneurship: When you are in a job, working for someone, but you work and believe in the same way as an entrepreneur. A growth mindset is something Alison has always had, it is also something entrepreneurs, top performers and intrapreneurship have in common. It has made her hard to manage in the past simply because she always wanted to improve things and make change. Now, she is passionate about focusing on changing one person into an entrepreneur at a time: this is how you make significant changes in culture. People overcomplicate business. Sell more stuff, spend less money and make a profit. That’s the formula for success. Sales isn’t just a numbers game. Having time management, good data, great questions and effective processes can make an immeasurable difference to success. Sales and marketing are two separate entities. They need to be treated as such. Alison recognises that sometimes she will be asked to be on a panel to ‘tick a box’. But she doesn’t care, she just uses it to her advantage and as an opportunity and knows by the end she will have proved herself. Women have to go up there to show women that we can do just as much and more than men: when we get the opportunity, we have to take it to inspire others to do the same. BEST MOMENTS 01:52 “Every day, all I do is bring my best and give my a-game” 05:22 “It’s great to be a woman in a space that’s not overfilled with women, so first of all that’s a great differentiator” 14:59 “One of the key factors top performers and entrepreneurs have is a growth mindset” 19:49 “Females tend to make stronger leaders because they can get people to work with them, they can get people to be part of that journey” 38:07 “There are not enough female speakers out there, there are not enough diverse speakers out there” VALUABLE RESOURCES Christina Talks Podcast https://www.green-umbrella.biz/the-4ps-of-personal-branding/ ABOUT THE HOST Christina has been working with SME’s since 2013 to launch, develop and perfect their online presence. In 2019 Christina made the move from employee to business owner of a successful digital marketing agency focused on educating business owners in the use of social media. Christina is driven by the fact that in today’s world, it doesn’t matter how big or small your marketing budget is, you can be a major player. For small businesses, the tools are just as accessible – you just need to know how to use them! LinkedIn Twitter WebsiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Alison and I will be discussing growing up in Scotland, how she became the ‘Entrepreneur's Godmother', was awarded an MBE in 2020, by the Queen, and how she developed her rock-solid relationship with money, along with her own sense of self-value and self-worth. Alison shares her Money Story and the principles that have guided her success to date and have seen her ‘Smash it' many times over.Alison Edgar MBE also known as “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” to a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, brings a matchless amalgamation of the outside of the box thinking, insight, and knowledge to the world of professional development.In 2020, Alison received an MBE for recognition of her long-term work within entrepreneurship and business, which continues to inspire her methodologies. SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want is Alison's second book, which has already reached the #1 spot on Amazon multiple times. Based on SMASH IT! Alison's talks encourage individuals to enhance their professional and personal lives, providing unique methods of motivation by combining DISC personality analysis with practical goal setting. Alison Edgar MBE contact details:Website: www.alisonedgar.comLinkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/Instagram: www.instagram.com/thealisonedgar Like this show? Please leave us a review here.Follow us on our social media accounts:website: www.lesleyathomas.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-thomasInstagram: www.instagram/en/lesleythomascoachingFor Female Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefinancialfreedomcollectiveSign up for access to FREE RESOURCE: https://lesleyathomas.com/lets-talk-money/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Alison and I will be discussing growing up in Scotland, how she became the ‘Entrepreneur's Godmother', was awarded an MBE in 2020, by the Queen, and how she developed her rock-solid relationship with money, along with her own sense of self-value and self-worth. Alison shares her Money Story and the principles that have guided her success to date and have seen her ‘Smash it' many times over.Alison Edgar MBE also known as “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” to a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, brings a matchless amalgamation of the outside of box thinking, insight, and knowledge to the world of professional development.In 2020, Alison received an MBE for recognition of her long-term work within entrepreneurship and business, which continues to inspire her methodologies. SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want is Alison's second book, which has already reached the #1 spot on Amazon multiple times. Based on SMASH IT! Alison's talks encourage individuals to enhance their professional and personal lives, providing unique methods of motivation by combining DISC personality analysis with practical goal setting. Alison Edgar MBE contact details:Website: www.alisonedgar.comLinkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/Instagram: www.instagram.com/thealisonedgar Like this show? Please leave us a review here.Follow us on our social media accounts:website: www.lesleyathomas.comLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-thomasInstagram: www.instagram/en/lesleythomascoachingFor Female Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefinancialfreedomcollectiveSign up for access to FREE RESOURCE: https://lesleyathomas.com/lets-talk-money/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Questions are a great way to get to know people better. They are also a great way to persuade and influence people to work with you. I want to share with you three 'KILLER' questions that I think are really excellent for getting business, all of which I have personally used many times. If you've found this useful you might find this week's podcast interview What chocolate can teach you about sales with Alison Edgar MBE very helpful too - https://mfl.global/2021/11/23/alison-edgar/ Alison Edgar is known as ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother' to Dragon's Den and Apprentice Winners. She's written two best-selling books Secrets of Successful Sales and SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want, which discuss why everything we do is a sale. She's worked with some of the biggest names in business such as SkyBet, Discovery Channel and EasyJet teaching them her intrapreneurship methodology, helping them to encourage entrepreneurial thinking within their organisations and now she's here to discuss the importance of sales. Alison shares the link between sales and intrapreneurship, the key components to a sales process, how everything we do is a sale and why DISC and behaviours are so important in organisations especially in relation to sales.

In this episode of #SpeakingBusinessPodcast, I talk to Alison Edgar MBE.    Alison is known as ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother' to Dragon's Den and Apprentice Winners.  She's written two best-selling books Secrets of Successful Sales and SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want, which discuss why everything we do is a sale. She's worked with some of the biggest names in business such as SkyBet, Discovery Channel and EasyJet teaching them her intrapreneurship methodology, helping them to encourage entrepreneurial thinking within their organisations and now she's here to discuss the importance of sales. Links: More about Alison Edgar MBE Connect with Alison More about Maria Franzoni Ltd Connect with Maria on LinkedIn Connect with Maria on Facebook Listen here: Podfollow Libsyn  Apple Podcasts  Stitcher Spotify This podcast was created using Alitu.  Powerfully simple recording and editing tools for podcasters.  Record your show, edit it in minutes, and publish directly to your host.  Find out more and join here.

In this episode, Shae speaks with Alison Edgar, The Entrepreneur's Godmother and Managing Director of Sales Coaching Solutions is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and thought leader.

"When your dyslexic and you got to keep the flow, it was so tiring. Physically I was exhausted, because I has stay on the focus, I had work so hard to try and read the sentence."The Dyslexia Life Hacks Show welcomes on Alison Edgar MBE, twice voted one of UK's top 10 business advisers and author of two best selling books. She has come along way form leaving school and taking a job in a hotel reception, she soon found that she could turn her hand to all aspects of running a hotel. This lead to a career in sales, where she overachieved and rose high in the corporate world. It was during a visit to one of her clients, they discovered she has dyslexia. As it will come apparent throughout the podcast, Alison is a master of cultivating her straights. They become so strong that any weakness she may have are overwhelmed, she also surrounds herself with grate people who allow her to shine. Ever wondered what it like to record you own audiobook as a dyslexic? Listen in to find out. Find Alison on; LinkedIn, Twitter and her websiteFor more hacks tip and tricks for dyslexia please visit  Dyslexia Life Hacks.

Everything in life is a sale. In this Expert Insight Interview, we welcome Alison Edgar MBE, author of an Amazon Best Seller — Secret of Successful Sales, and a new book entitled Smash It! The Art of Getting What YOU Want.

Sales. The word alone can send even the most seasoned entrepreneur into a cold sweat. Get your sales process right and you'll feel like Rocky at the top of those steps.

When are reviews real and when are they fake? We'll be asking a range of guests whether it's ok to be paid to do a review and how online sites can detect fraudulent write ups. We'll also hear why negative feedback can be good for a business in the long run. Elizabeth Hotson speaks to James Kay, head of corporate communications at Tripadvisor, Carolyn Jameson, chief trust officer at Trustpilot and Michael Hanney, founder of Review Solicitors. We also hear from restaurant pr Hugh Richard Wright and Alison Edgar, author of 'The art of getting what you want.' Plus, Cynthia Giles from Cut Throat Marketing explains why negative reviews aren't necessarily bad for business. Presenter: Elizabeth Hotson Producer: Sarah Treanor (Picture: A mouth and comment symbols. Credit: Getty Images)

Today Jo and Zoe were joined by Alison Edgar MBE also known as “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” to a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs who brings a matchless amalgamation of outside of the box thinking, insight, and knowledge to the world of professional development. They discussed tactics to smash your goals! Their conversation covered: - How we can get anything we put our minds to - Understanding the why behind your goals - Framing your mindset for successful sales - Seeing your value as a bookkeeper - Questions to ask in conversations with potential clients. You can find out more about Alison at entrepreneursgodmother.com or connect at @thealisonedgar Connect with Jo and Zoe at 6figurebookkeeper.com and join us in The 6 Figure Bookkeepers' Club at 6figurebookkeeper.club Bookkeepers' Bootcamp is now available at 6figurebookkeeper.com/bootcamp

In today's interview i'm speaking to the power house which is Alison Edgar.  Alison is a speaker, trainer, coach and author of Amazon International #1 and WHSmith top 10 business book, Secrets of Successful Sales  She has worked with some of the worlds' top thinkers. From Dragon's Den entrepreneurs, to Apprentice Winners and the biggest names in business including The Discovery Channel, NHS, WHSmith, and Sky.  Alison uses her years of experience from working in large corporates to becoming ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother' to motivate, inspire, and teach new skills to people around the globe.  Join Alison's Facebook Group Connect on LinekedIn Subscribe to Alison's YouTube channel Resources   Buy my Planner My Website  Wealth Hub Membership    Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook 

Welcome back to Season 2 of Interviews With Experts. This week, I'm honoured to be joined by another amazing guest, Alison Edgar (MBE).Alison is an Author, Communications Expert and Motivational Speaker. We talk about how she's gone from writing bestsellers to hosting Clubhouse sessions; the thinking behind her brand new book "SMASH IT!: The Art of Getting What YOU Want"; the importance of systems and processes; and how her unique branding has helped distinguish her in order to help even more people.So tune in, enjoy, and as always, let us know your comments, questions, and thoughts.You can subscribe to podcast notifications here: https://ie926.infusionsoft.com/app/form/podcast________________________________________________________________________Alison Edgar can be found here:LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thealisonedgarLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/Twitter: https://twitter.com/thealisonedgar________________________________________________________________________Georgia Kirke can be found here:For help with building your personal brand by publishing incredible content, you can contact me at georgia@writebusinessresults.com or 020 3752 7057LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/personal-brand-how-to/________________________________________________________________________RESOURCES & LINKS:Subscribe to our Words of Wisdom newsletter - exclusive content covering all things expert positioning delivered monthly straight to your inbox: Count Me In!Our Latest Blog: Books, Blogs & Podcasts: Simplified Creation & Publication►If you've got stories to tell and need Write Business Results to help you get it out there, we'd love to hear from you. Check us out at https://writebusinessresults.com/►Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Write Business Results LtdFind us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/write_business_results/Find us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/writeabooktogrowyourbusiness/You can email your questions and comments to:info@writebusinessresults.comEnjoy, and come back for the latest interviews with experts each Monday. Thank you for listening.

This week, Ellie is joined by "The Queen Of Sales", motivational speaker, and author of 'Secrets Of Successful Sales', Alison Edgar MBE! Alison discusses the importance of recognising your roots in life, the difference between entrepreneurs and business owners, and why putting in the effort is sometimes worth far more than achieving the result in mind. KEY TAKEAWAYS It's vital that we never forget our roots, and where we've come from. We may reach the dizzy heights of success, but by remaining rooted, we will be able to connect with anyone, regardless of background. There's a difference between an entrepreneur, and someone who has merely set up a business. Entrepreneurs are hungry. They take risks. They always bet big on the exciting ideas. Having strong opinions is one thing, but we must never be so closed-minded that we cannot listen to the perspective of others. No one can ever know everything. We need to remain open. Often, coaches spend more time selling the courses than actually offering any practical, actionable advice. It can be a case of smoke and mirrors. Look for guidance from those who have a track record of proven results, and who have helped others to achieve the same. BEST MOMENTS 'Never forget where you're coming from' 'My appearance shaped me to be who I am' 'I've got my own path, but I can be influenced by others opinions if I think they're valid' 'It's A for effort, not A for the result'  VALUABLE RESOURCES On A Mission - https://omny.fm/shows/on-a-mission Alison Edgar - https://alisonedgar.com Alison Edgar Twitter - https://twitter.com/thealisonedgar ABOUT THE HOST The On A Mission Podcast brings you Ellie Mckay's no holds barred chats with some of the UK's top business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, top thought leaders, influencers and mindset experts. On a Mission is for unconventional thinkers that want to challenge the status quo. For all those people on a mission to live their best lives and take control of their own destiny. Ellie is a straight-talking, successful property entrepreneur who passionately believes that everyone has the power within themselves to transform their lives no matter what their situation. As a mumpreneur with 3 young children and multiple businesses, Ellie likes to keep it real with her no-bs insights and share the things that have helped her achieve the level of success she has enjoyed to date. CONTACT METHODS: Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/ellie-mckay/ Facebook: Facebook.com/ellie.mckay.3150 Instagram: Instagram.com/ellie_mckay_official YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTIA0t0Xcm2Fz3kOzX3XaBA?sub_confirmation=1 Clubhouse: @ellie83 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alison Edgar MBE also known as “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” to a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, brings a matchless amalgamation of outside of the box thinking, insight, and knowledge to the world of professional development.   Her teachings have pioneered culture change within her five-star global clientele such as Sky, Equifax, The NHS, and The Discovery Channel, where she has delivered her world-class ‘Intrapreneurship' methodology to enhance the development of teams by helping employees to think like entrepreneurs.    In 2020, Alison received an MBE for recognition of her long-term work within entrepreneurship and business, which continues to inspire her methodologies.   This episode we hear all about Alison's upbringing within a working class background with little money, being diagnosed with dyslexia to gracing international stages, working with some of the biggest organisations around the world and receiving an MBE.   We delve into the struggles, the achievements, the highs and the lows and her mindset throughout the years.    This is an incredible episode to learn some powerful wisdom of truly believing in yourself even through those hard moments to achieve anything when you want when you put your mind to it.    To find out more information regarding Alison, simply head to her official website at: https://alisonedgar.com (https://alisonedgar.com)   To find out more information about the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign and how you can become an official sponsor, simply click on the link below for more information:  https://linktr.ee/imperfectlyperfectcampaign (https://linktr.ee/imperfectlyperfectcampaign)  *The Imperfectly Perfect Campaign is creating awareness and not a substitute for professional advice. Our episodes do touch on topics around Mental Health Struggles and Suicide. Should you need help, please refer to your nearest crisis numbers. For the United States of America; 911 for all emergencies, alternatively the national suicide hotline on 1.800.273.8255 (TALK) For Australia; 000 for all emergencies, alternatively call Life Line Australia on 13 11 14 A big thank you to our voice over: Mike Christensen (thevoicemonkey.com)    

Leaving the world of blue-chip sales in 2014, Alison Edgar set up her own business to work with entrepreneurs, start-ups and teams. According to Forbes magazine "90% of start-up businesses fail", Alison made it her mission to flip this statistic on its head and give every business a fighting chance. Since being crowned ‘The Entrepreneurs Godmother' by a plethora of the world's most successful entrepreneurs including Dragon's Den and Apprentice winners. In recognition of her services to Entrepreneurship and Business, she was honoured with an MBE in 2020. She was also invited to attend the Queen's Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace and was twice named one of the UK's Top Ten business advisers. Alison also regularly consults with Downing Street to give my opinions on the business landscape. Alison's debut book ‘Secrets of Successful Sales', is an international best-seller, has been stocked in the Top 10 Business Books in WHSmith, and was featured in the Independent's 2019 Top Business Books written by Women.  What will be discussed on today's show:  Women in business, women in success Achieving with dyslexia How do you get what YOU want? How to get hold of Alison:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thealisonedgar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealisonedgar/ Website: www.alisonedgar.com To find out more about Fearless Business:  Join our amazing community of Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers on Facebook:  >> https://facebook.com/groups/ChargeMore  And check out the Fearless Business website:  >> https://fearless.biz

In this programme, Elizabeth Hotson looks at the art of demanding good service. From dealing with customer services to having conversations with chatbots, we’ll be giving some practical tips for getting what you want. Whilst some people love making their voices heard, Dr. Robin Kowalski, professor of psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina explains why some people’s personalities make complaining a nightmare. Meanwhile, Sabine Benoit, Professor of Marketing at Surrey Business School looks at the customer services conundrum inherent in many food delivery apps. Imogen Butler-Cole, a trainer in communications skills at RADA Business gives practical advice on how to prepare physically and psychologically for making a complaint and author Alison Edgar explains why effective complaining is all about adapting your approach to different situations. (Picture of two people shouting, Credit: Getty Images).

In this episode, Pete speaks to Alison Edgar, The Entrepreneurs Godmother. Alison originally worked in the hospitality industry, living all over the world including Sydney and Cape Town. She moved back to the UK and began working in sales and it was after working in various large companies she began her own business working with entrepreneurs. Alison also delivers talks and education on how to be entrepreneurial including working with the discovery channel and SKY. Today she speaks to Pete about business, mindset and much more! KEY TAKEAWAYS Alison is in her 50’s and recognises that a lot of people her age are winding down career wise and thinking about their retirement. But she is just starting, she launched her business in her 40s and has so much passion and energy for business and entrepreneurship. Fire in the belly to Alison means waking up in the morning and not finding life and work a chore. She has a fire in her belly in the morning to get up and have a brilliant day.  Alison struggled with some elements of school including late-diagnosed dyslexia. But what this meant for her is that she had to learn to discover and channel what she was good at from an early age. This and her tremendous work ethic is what has carried her through her career. Alison is definitely an extrovert, she gets her energy from being with other people. If she spends too much time on her own she finds herself deflated. However, she also finds she needs a small amount of time to herself to reflect on things. Change is something Alison teaches and talks about often. Many of us become scared by change which is understandable but you can alter your mindset to be enthused and intrigued by change instead. Alison really enjoys working with the youth. They give her fresh perspectives on things, renewed energy and inspiration. BEST MOMENTS  “Is it the mindset of having a fire in your belly or is it just having fire in your belly, I think it’s both” “If you can really excel at what you’re really good at then the other things don’t matter so much” “You’ve got no idea how your behaviours affect other people…you just might change somebody’s life that you don’t even know” “It’s easy to overthink when you are on your own” VALUABLE RESOURCES Subscribe to Fire In The Belly Podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-in-the-belly/id1499375061) ABOUT THE GUEST Alison Edgar   ABOUT THE HOST The ‘Mighty Pete Lonton’ from the ‘Mighty 247’ company is your main host of ‘Fire In The Belly’.  Pete is an Entrepreneur, Mentor, Coach, Property Investor, and father of 3 beautiful girls. Pete’s background is in Project Management and Property, but his true passion is the ‘Fire in The Belly’ project itself. His mission is to help others find their potential and become the mightiest version of themselves. Pete openly talks about losing both of his parents, suffering periods of depression, business downturn and burn-out, and ultimately his years spent not stoking ‘Fire In the Belly’. In 2017, at 37 years of age that changed, and he is now on a journey of learning, growing, accepting, and inspiring others. Pete can connect with people and intuitively asks questions to reveal a person’s passion and discover how to live their mightiest life. The true power of ‘Fire In The Belly’ is the Q&A’s - Questions and Actions! The ‘Fire In The Belly’ brand and the programme is rapidly expanding into podcasts, seminars, talks, business workshops, development course, and rapid results mentoring. CONTACT METHOD https://www.facebook.com/mightypetelonton/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mightypete https://www.facebook.com/groups/430218374211579/ Support the show: https://www.facebook.com/groups/430218374211579/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Had a really relaxed conversation with The Entrepreneurs Godmother Alison Edgar MBE. We talk about her greatest achievement, how she found out about the MBE and how she actually doesn't feel that entrepreneurial.

Today's guest is a good friend of the Successful Women in Business Network or SWIBTribe, Alison Edgar MBE. Alison hosted our International Women's Day conference in March 2020 – and this recording was made when she was the guest speaker at our last network meeting of that year.  Alison set up her own business to work with entrepreneurs, start-ups and teams, after leaving the world of blue-chip sales. According to Forbes magazine "90% of start-up businesses fail", Alison made it her mission to flip this statistic on its head and give every business a fighting chance. Since then, she has been crowned ‘The Entrepreneurs Godmother' by a plethora of successful entrepreneurs including Dragon's Den and Apprentice Winners. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to enterprise, not only was she named one of the UK's Top Ten business advisers, she was awarded an MBE in  2020.   Alison's debut book ‘Secrets of Successful Sales', is an international best-seller and was featured in the Independent's 2019 Top Business Books written by Women. Based on her TEDx talk, ‘The Art of Getting What You Want', Alison is now working on book number 2 which combines her work with top entrepreneurs and psychology to teach everyday people to think with an entrepreneurial mindset, to meet their goals and improve their lives.  You can connect with Alison via: LinkedIn   Facebook Website More 'stuff' from us... Find out more about #swibtribe events on our website  as well as the Successful Women Members Club. You can get Gill's book Celebr8 Success - How to be a successful mum without the guilt on Amazon Sign up for our free guide - The A-Z on Banishing the Impostor Syndrome Don't forget to Subscribe to the show and we would love if you would leave a review!  

In this episode I speak with Alison Edgar MBE, thought leader, speaker and author. Alison is the Managing Director of ‘Sales Coaching Solutions' and ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother'.   She has been voted the UK's number 1 sales and marketing adviser and a former winner of a GB Entrepreneur Award. Alison has trained thousands of entrepreneurs nationally and internationally.   Listen as Alison shares her story about recently being awarded an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship.   Hear how Alison started her journey working as a hotel receptionist to help transform SME businesses from zero to a multi-million pound turnover.   Alison also developed a formula which later turned into an Amazon #1 best-selling status book and is referenced not only in business but self development.   If you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business, this is the episode you don't want to miss.   You can find the podcast on all major platforms. Please do leave a comment and subscribe. You can also find us on social media @thehackshare.   Thanks for listening.

In this episode I speak with Alison Edgar MBE, thought leader, speaker and author. Alison is the Managing Director of ‘Sales Coaching Solutions’ and ‘The Entrepreneur’s Godmother’.   She has been voted the UK’s number 1 sales and marketing adviser and a former winner of a GB Entrepreneur Award. Alison has trained thousands of entrepreneurs nationally and internationally.   Listen as Alison shares her story about recently being awarded an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship.   Hear how Alison started her journey working as a hotel receptionist to help transform SME businesses from zero to a multi-million pound turnover.   Alison also developed a formula which later turned into an Amazon #1 best-selling status book and is referenced not only in business but self development.   If you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business, this is the episode you don't want to miss.   You can find the podcast on all major platforms. Please do leave a comment and subscribe. You can also find us on social media @thehackshare.   Thanks for listening. The post Helping Businesses Become Successful with Alison Edgar MBE appeared first on Welcome To The Hack Share Podcast & THS Life Coaching.

Alison Edgar is known as the Entrepreneur's Godmother, a successful international speaker and the author of the best selling book Secrets of Successful Sale. She explains that sales is actually about listening. And really understanding what your client needs, not what your client wants, what they needShe said:I was diagnosed with dyslexiaStarting my own business, to teach people to sell the way that I do from my heart and from my passion and with a genuine loveSo a lot of people don't like to put themselves into a sales situation in case they get rejectedI needed a name for the brand that works with startups and micro-businesses are Alison Edgar was a little bit dullYou are the Entrepreneur's Godmother. And then I looked at godmother and what it mean and it's a person of influence in an organization or in someone's lifeI think it's important to stand out for the right reasonsYou have to look at standing out and it's okay, you're not going to be able to please everyone, you're not going to sell to everyone anywayMy industries are so varied from tech to product to service, but the sales process, so in the book, secrets of successful sales, the methodology is around behavioursSales to me doesn't come from after a piece of paper, it comes from a genuine interest in your customerWhat then I normally do is I would listen to a call, or I would get one of my customers to talk me through what happened. And then we coach through the section. So the process starts off with being organized and doing your research

In today's Wealth Series interviews i'm speaking to the power house which is Alison Edgar.  Alison is a speaker, trainer, coach and author of Amazon International #1 and WHSmith top 10 business book, Secrets of Successful Sales  She has worked with some of the worlds' top thinkers. From Dragon's Den entrepreneurs, to Apprentice Winners and the biggest names in business including The Discovery Channel, NHS, WHSmith, and Sky.  Alison uses her years of experience from working in large corporates to becoming ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother' to motivate, inspire, and teach new skills to people around the globe.  Join Alison's Facebook Group Connect on LinekedIn Subscribe to Alison's YouTube channel Resources:    Join the Facebook community  My Website  Find out more about your money habits via our quiz   Connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook 

Interview with Alison Edgar Based on her work with entrepreneurs, Alison now works with huge conglomerates such as Sky and The Discovery Channel to teach their teams to think intrapreneurially which encourages growth mindsets, outside of the box thinking, and leads to an increase in sales. Alison's debut book ‘Secrets of Successful Sales', is an international best-seller with over 120 5-star reviews, has been stocked in the Top 10 Business Books in WHSmith, and was featured in the Independent's 2019 Top Business Books written by Women.

Summary: Alison can always be spotted by her pink blazer and her truly effervescent personality. She's passionate about simplifying sales and trains entrepreneurs in the UK on the necessary sales skills of a business owner. She's an author and a TEDEX speaker that frequently teaches on sales concepts that can be universally applied. You'll find out how she overcame dyslexia to become successful in sales. How to adapt your sales approach to appeal to people that may not look or think like you. And you'll understand how when people come to ideas themselves, that's really the biggest key to sales. Key Takeaways by Time! Why customer service and sales are really the same thing. (6:00) Why most people make sales complicated. (9:47) What does she describe is the magical dance of sales? (10:02) Sales is about a WE THING (15:04) What's one thing that can only hapen to you? Story of her walking into 10 Downing Street! (36:04) Resources https://www.amazon.com/Chimp-Paradox-Management-Program-Confidence/dp/039916359X (The Chimp Paradox - Dr. Steve Peters) Connect with Alison https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ (LinkedIN: ) Connect with Us! https://www.linkedin.com/company/53108426/admin/ (LinkedIN: ) https://stories-of-selling-human.captivate.fm/ (Website: )

The one about GDPR being good for business, lockdown shopping and Lord of the Rings Trilogy - TG03    00:00:00 Introduction  Here are your hosts, Roger and Pascal.  00:01:34 In the News  A selection of announcements and news releases from the world of marketing and technology that caught our attention.  00:08:51 Content Spotlights   GDPR: what have we learned so far and where is data protection law going?    https://econsultancy.com/gdpr-learned-since-introduction-future-data-protection-law/ (https://econsultancy.com/gdpr-learned-since-introduction-future-data-protection-law/)   Deloitte and YouGov Plc Survey: 3 in 5 consumers have used more local stores and services during pandemic   https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/three-in-five-consumers-have-used-more-local-stores-and-services-to-support-them-during-lockdown.html (https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/three-in-five-consumers-have-used-more-local-stores-and-services-to-support-them-during-lockdown.html)   00:22:54 Marketing Tech and Apps   Pascal:  Anchor.fm - https://anchor.fm/ (https://anchor.fm/)  Audacity - https://www.audacityteam.org/ (https://www.audacityteam.org/)  Roger:  TubeBuddy - https://www.tubebuddy.com/ (https://www.tubebuddy.com/)  Hemingway Editor - http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ (http://www.hemingwayapp.com/)  00:33:05 This Week in History  Our selection of historical events and anniversaries from the world of science, technology and popular culture.  00:38:21 Creator Shout Outs  Pete Everitt – Marketing Development Podcast – Passed the 100th episode!   https://www.peteeveritt.com/podcast/ (https://www.peteeveritt.com/podcast/)    Aileen Smith – Article: Is your personal health on your business plan   https://www.thehealthheroine.com/personal-health-on-your-business-plan (https://www.thehealthheroine.com/personal-health-on-your-business-plan)   Alison Edgar – Article: Employment is like Musical Chairs    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employment-like-musical-chairs-alison-edgar-fism (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employment-like-musical-chairs-alison-edgar-fism)     Madalyn Sklar #TwitterSmarter weekly Twitter Chat   https://twitter.com/MadalynSklar (https://twitter.com/MadalynSklar)   00:42:54 Film Marketing  This week we talk The Lord of the Rings trilogy. How Peter Jackson the producer used early vlogging and other marketing techniques to woo three different target audiences.  About Two Geeks and A Marketing Podcast    Hosted by the two geeks, Roger Edwards and Pascal Fintoni, to keep you up to date with the latest news, tech, content and wisdom from the world of marketing.  Roger is a man on a mission to keep marketing simple. He is the voice of the Marketing & Finance Podcast and the host of the RogVLOG series.   Pascal is also on a mission to demystify digital marketing. He's the host of the Content Marketing Studio video podcast and many other video series.  Every week we'll bring you the following segments.  In the News.  Content Spotlight  Marketing Tech and Apps  This Week in History  Creator Shout Outs  Film Marketing  Please subscribe and leave comments and suggestions in the usual places.  Watch the show on video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCChv7HnP_ZqGoFQbzqkeaKA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCChv7HnP_ZqGoFQbzqkeaKA)?  Pascal Fintoni: https://pascalfintoni.com/ (https://pascalfintoni.com/)  Roger Edwards: https://rogeredwards.co.uk/services/ (https://rogeredwards.co.uk/services/) 

This week at the Extremely Successful Sales Club, we were delighted to be visited by genuine sales royalty. In recognition of her hard work and dedication towards the growth of the UK economy in 2015, Alison Edgar was invited to the Queens Royal Garden party and is recognized as one of the UK's top 10 Business AdvisersOn top of that she is a previous winner of Great British Entrepreneur of the year (an award that she now sits on the judging panel for) and is the author of the best-selling book “Secrets of Successful Sales”You're going to love what she had to say about…The personality trait she witnesses in all top performers and successful entrepreneursHow a growth mind-set separates the winners from the losersThe importance of salespeople “leading the dance”Why making mistakes is the key to greater successHow imposter syndrome can pull the rug from underneath your chances of hitting he big timeWhy salespeople need to be proactive and shine through this difficult time to ensure their businesses (and industries) surviveWhy some of the best salespeople are introverts It is an absolute pleasure to welcome onto this show the "Entrepreneurs Godmother”– Alison EdgarYou're going to love this oneTo your successChris Murray

Alison EdgarWebsite:alisonedgar.com salescoachingsolutions.co.uk entrepreneursgodmother.com Twitter:https://twitter.com/thealisonedgarLinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar My social media links:Podcast:https://podcast.app/day-in-day-out-p832991Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/muui23LinkedIn page:https://www.linkedin.com/company/day-in-day-out-podcast/?viewAsMember=trueYouTube:https://bit.ly/2yCJr8t

Are you being your best you and do you believe it Sales and customer service are exactly the same thing. How I managed my dyslexia to be my superpower Leveraging your self-awareness to find and fill your gaps to be successful Nobody knows what you meant to say, so know your content Building a brand by standing out consistently How to keep your cool when you go to 10 Downing Street What it means to be soft and strong in sales

In this special episode we interview 'The Entrepreneur's Godmother' Alison Edgar. After 25 successful years in BlueChip sales, Alison has developed a simple but savvy model called The Four Pillars of Sales. So far it's helped hundreds of start-ups and SMEs flip their figures, increase their sales and grow their margins. How would your world feel if you could close twice as many deals?    

In this week's podcast, I am joined by thought leader, speaker, author, and award-winning entrepreneur and an absolute force of nature; Alison Edgar. Alison, who is also known as 'The Entrepreneur's Godmother' talks about the intrapreneurship methodology, confidence, top tips on how to negotiate and sell businesses and lots more. This podcast is full of insightful information about leadership, confidence, public speaking and business. It should definitely not be missed.

How do you sell if you don’t feel comfortable selling?

  In this fourth episode of the Legendary Leaders Podcast series, we talk to Alison Edgar, who is a Thought Leader, Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author and Speaker.     In this enlightening interview, Alison shares her personal insights including the importance of setting a plan and goals when starting out and how her book has created a legacy for her to leave behind for her family.     She reminds us of the importance of listening to people around us, keeping ourselves grounded and not believing the hype! Alison talks about the importance of resilience for change and how she deals with failure.     If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video show notes and more here and follow me on social media below:     Facebook Instagram LinkedIn     In this episode you will learn...   How to remain your truest authentic self (Yes, we do like the word authentic! How to embrace fear. How to turn “I can't” into “I will”, embracing new challenges by creating a fun competition for yourself.   About Cathleen:     As a trained Leadership & Mindset Coach, Facilitator and Keynote Speaker Cathleen supports female Leaders reshape their careers without compromising their personal lives and hard-earned success.     Cathleen focuses on women who lost their sense of purpose, who feel they are running in a hamster wheel, trying to please everyone but themselves. She helps people turn their careers around so that they start feeling fulfilled and excited again about the Mondays to come.     Her proven 6-step "Legend Framework" helps Leaders go from feeling lost, lacking confidence and clarity about their career to owning their next career step, feeling at ease with themselves and others, excited about their future and able to tackle any obstacle that may get in their way. At the end of the process, Cathleen's clients will feel healthier, happier, energised and clear about their future.     She works with action takers who really want to make an impact on the world around them - people who are driven by purpose. If you are a female high-achiever and you are ready to take your career to the next level whilst fully enjoying your personal life, then get in touch!     With over 15 years of leadership experience in Retail, Media & Broadcasting, Engineering and Property Investment, Cathleen has not only experienced the challenges and opportunities of a leader herself, she has also been leading and supporting various leadership development projects within large, complex, multinational matrix organisations. These are exactly the experiences that made her choose to help leaders across the world step out of the “daily hamster wheel” and into a life of purpose, inspiration and courage to live a life on their own terms.     Cathleen's Links:   Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Pinterest Website       About Alison:     Alison Edgar is a Thought Leader & Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author & Speaker. Nicknamed ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother', Alison has been instrumental in the growth of some of the worlds' best-known companies including Dragons Den and Apprentice Winners.     She knows what it takes to transform a company from zero to a multi-million-pound turnover.     She absolutely knows what it takes to transform a business from zero to a multi-million-pound turnover. The difference between your team and them? Mindset. Alison says she could have your whole workforce thinking like entrepreneurs.     Most recently, she started writing her 2nd book. Her debut book ‘Secrets of Successful Sales' has reached the Amazon #1 spot with just short of 100 5-star reviews. Secrets of Successful Sales is stocked in the Top 10 Business Books in WHSmith and in flagship Waterstones stores across the country. It's time to say goodbye to low morale, and hello to intrapreneurial fresh thinking!   Alison's Links:   Website LinkedIn Instagram   Get Alison's Bestselling Book “The Secret of Successful Sales”    

How to sell the ethical way with Alison Edgar If you want to make money, you need to know how to sell. But for a lot of us, our image of a salesperson is not a good one. I was pleased to be able to have Alison Edgar on the podcast so that we could talk over what ethical sales really looks like and how to sell to different personalities in a way that suits them all. We also explore the ethics of those large self development and business training workshops with charismatic speakers on stage, encouraging participants to run to the back of the room and buy as soon as they can. So if you are an entrepreneur or thinking of setting up your own business and will need to sell your idea/product at some point, then this episode is for you. About Alison Nicknamed ‘The Entrepreneur's Godmother', Alison Edgar has been instrumental in the growth of some of the worlds' best-known companies including Dragons Den and Apprentice Winners. She knows what it takes to transform a company from zero to a multi-million-pound turnover. Twice voted one of the UK's Top Ten Business Advisers, and an author of an Amazon #1 best-selling and WHSmith Top Ten. Alison is regularly featured on BBC TV, as well as working with Downing Street and The Royal Family.   Full show notes and links at: theideaslab.org/alisonedgar   Music provided by Argofox: TheDiabolicalWaffle - My Wish https://youtu.be/sRWEMjYR6e4

Mark takes flight with speaker, author and “the entrepreneur’s godmother” Alison Edgar, to build a list of the best places it takes too long to fly to.

Alison Edgar on better sales and building an entrepreneurial spirit at work - MAF222 My guest this week is bestselling sales author, Alison Edgar. We talk about how to make sales engaging to drive business growth and building an entrepreneurial spirit at work. Welcome to episode 222 of the Marketing and Finance Podcast. We chat about: Why sales isn’t all about the hard sell The difference between sales and marketing What ‘Intrapreneurial’ means How an entrepreneurial culture can exist in a business How businesses can avoid being victims of their own success The process Alison uses to help her clients Who is Nathan Hirsch? Alison worked in hospitality all over the world, then for BT in the UK. She wrote a book, “Secrets of Successful Sales” in 2018, describing things as ‘going mad’ after the launch. It was the WH Smith top ten and became an Amazon no.1 best seller. 18 months on, it’s got 115 five-star reviews, cementing her position as a sales expert. She explains that she took on board what the top salespeople did and carried out analysis and research to learn more. She discovered that they did the same things as top performers in other industries. Links and Show Notes. For links to the books and apps mentioned, please visit http://rogeredwards.co.uk/MAF for the show notes. What is the Marketing and Finance (MAF) Podcast? The podcast for ideas and inspiration on marketing your business and growing your business, and for discussing topics on all things finance. I’m Roger Edwards, a marketing guy and keynote speaker from Edinburgh. Talk to me if you want to cut the BS and complexity from your marketing strategy. The MAF Podcast is a 30-minute radio show you download from http://rogeredwards.co.uk/MAF, iTunes or Spotify. Each week you'll hear interviews with business experts, marketers, entrepreneurs and journalists. Interviews to listen to in the car, on the train or on the treadmill. Or even in the bath! We talk about: How you can grow your business using content marketing and social media How you can keep your Marketing strategy and communications simple Topics, issues, products and business models from the world of finance You’ll take away one or two big ideas that you can apply to your business. So, you can keep marketing your business to keep growing your business. Please subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes and I’d be grateful if you would leave a review. http://rogeredwards.co.uk/itunes Fancy Appearing on the Show? Would you be interested in appearing on the MAF Podcast? Have you an exciting marketing or finance story to tell? Do you fancy drawing out some inspirational ideas that MAF listeners can take away to use in their own businesses? Do please contact me if you want to get involved. http://rogeredwards.co.uk

Entrepreneur’s godmother and Dyslexic Author, Alison Edgar, joins us as we discuss failure, focusing on your strengths, discovering what you want in life, working with the right team, and how to improve your productivity and focus.

Juicy Bits reflections on: #1 Turning negative experiences into really positive ones, #2 Making sure the goal we set is actually the goal we want to achieve and #3 Why the "why" is so important

When you’re trying to make a sale, do you try to cut to the chase? Are you so task-focused that you would rather rush the process? If you’re not using a customer-centric approach, if you don’t listen to your customers, or if you aren’t seeking to solve their problems, you could be missing out on making some great sales!In this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales, Darryl is joined by the unmistakeable Alison Edgar, also known as The Entrepreneur’s Godmother. Darryl and Alison have a fantastic conversation about the distinct similarities between sales and customer service. They also give terrific advice on how to become a more trusted seller by taking a deep dive into listening more than speaking, asking open-ended questions, and simply treating your customers the way they want to be treated. Learn how to lead, and keep the pace in the dance of sales, right here on this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales! About Darryl's guest: Alison Edgar is the MD of Sales Coaching Solutions and is nicknamed, “The Entrepreneur’s Godmother” by some of the world’s best well know entrepreneurs.  She has twice been voted one of the UK’s Top 10 Business Advisers and regularly features on BBC 1 TV and LBC radio. She has trained thousands of people locally, nationally and internationally.  Her client list ranges from start-ups including Dragon’s Den and Apprentice winners, all the way through to large organizations like Discovery Channel and Thomas Cook Airlines. Her book “Secrets of Successful Sales”, which explains her Four Pillars of Sales Methodology, has achieved Amazon number 1 best-selling status and is a WH Smith top 10 business book. When not teaching sales, she dedicates her time to helping young people and small businesses to improve their fates and fortunes, and is a regular visitor to number 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, collaborating with government and iDEA, (the Duke of York Awards).

Alison Edgar is the Managing Director of Sales Coaching Solutions but better known as The Entrepreneur's Godmother. She has been twice voted one of the UK's top 10 business advisers, working with No 10 Downing to advise on small business matters and has been invited to tea with the Queen with the work she does for UK Enterprise. Her clients include Thomas Cook, Discovery Channel and The Apprentice and Dragon's Den winners. Regularly featured on BBC TV, Radio and national press, she is the go to person for sales advice. “if you are never going to do it. So again what's the worst that can happen as long as you follow the tips that I have discussed. When you are on your deathbed hopefully that's not for a long time but are you going to look back and think I wish I had. And I think that the top tip. If anything happened to me tomorrow I would never look back and go I wish I had because I have done everything I wanted to do”…[Listen for More] Click Here for Show Notes To Listen or to Get the Show Notes go to https://wp.me/p6Tf4b-78x

What if I told you that the key to selling is to listen, not talk? I'm joined by Alison Edgar, sales expert & the entrepreneur's godmother. Alison talks us through her journey in sales and how she transformed into sales coaching. Alison believes that everything we do in life is sales. From trying to bargain a good deal from an independent business to just getting somebody to make you a cuppa! An interesting listen, especially if you want to know how to up your sales game! This podcast is brought to you by d&t advisory, helping you unlock the magic of your business, and sponsored by QuickBooks – helping UK small businesses stay on top of their finances. For more The Carl Reader Show, follow me on social media @CarlReader.

The Entrepreneur's Godmother is here to give you a swipe with the magic wand of sales success. THe 4 Pillars of Sales will give you the basis to create your Lazy Over Achiever Status. Have you ever wondered why you couldn't close a sale or the prospect never called you back? Here are some tips to stop that from happening.Hope you enjoy this awesome interview with the Entrepreneurs' Godmother. Alison Edgar.

The Entrepreneur's Godmother is here to give you a swipe with the magic wand of sales success. THe 4 Pillars of Sales will give you the basis to create your Lazy Over Achiever Status. Have you ever wondered why you couldn't close a sale or the prospect never called you back? Here are some tips to stop that from happening.Hope you enjoy this awesome interview with the Entrepreneurs' Godmother. Alison Edgar.

Secrets of Successful Sales with Alison Edgar MBE Secrets of successful sales are so important for any business or entrepreneur. Today I'm interviewing Alison Edgar, she's known as the Entrepreneurs Godmother and Managing Director of Sales Coaching Solutions. She's an author and entrepreneur, a speaker, and a thought leader. From growing up in a high rise flat in Scotland, and struggling with undiagnosed dyslexia, to working internationally in hospitality management, and ultimately owning and scaling a successful sales training business. Buy Secrets of Successful Sales by Alison Edgar here or find her: So on LinkedIn is a great place to get Alison, she is very active on LinkedIn as and on Instagram Alison Edgar and Twitter The Alison Edgar on Facebook it's entrepreneurs can clan we've got our Facebook group and it's almost 2000 members in there or via my website. Alison Edgar MBE deals with speaking and author activities. Entrepreneurs God Mother for start-ups and micro-businesses. Sales Coaching Solutions which deals with sales team training as well as a new topic which is intrapreneurship. So that's our topic for another podcast for another day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Secrets of Successful Sales with Alison Edgar Secrets of successful sales are so important for any business or entrepreneur. Today I'm interviewing Alison Edgar, she's known as the Entrepreneurs Godmother and Managing Director of Sales Coaching Solutions. She's an author and entrepreneur, a speaker, and a thought leader. From growing up in a high rise flat in Scotland, and struggling with undiagnosed dyslexia, to working internationally in hospitality management, and ultimately owning and scaling a successful sales training business. Nathaniel Schooler 0:50 Alison has a fantastic story to tell her debut book Secrets of Successful Sales has reached the top of the Amazon best selling chart and is also known in the top 10 in W.H. Smiths business chart. Alison regularly appears on and contributes to the BBC and LBC Radio and she has been named one of the UK's top 10 business advisers and the UK is number 1 sales and marketing adviser by Enterprise Nation. Nathaniel Schooler 1:24 Really pleased to have you on the show Alison. Nathaniel Schooler 1:34 I know you had a life changing opportunity come along quite recently, the Duke of York runs some kind of organisation and you're involved with that. And it sounds really quite interesting. I look forward to hearing more about you and that actually! So I'm gonna let you let you tell me a bit about it. Alison Edgar 1:56 Yeah, so what had happened is one of my clients, I've worked with a lot of young entrepreneurs, some of them ex Dragons Den winners or Apprentice winners. I like working with young people, the the bring out the best in me; they inspire me, and I think it's it's mutual. And Ben Towers who is a young entrepreneur did a multi million pound merger of this company. He works closely with working closely with the Duke of York idea awards. Alison Edgar 2:25 It sounded really funky and really cool. And I thought, that's something I could really get behind. So most people have heard of the Duke of Edinburgh, so with Duke of Edinburgh scheme, you go and you do the running up the hills and you know, you do the the sports activities. Alison Edgar 2:44 But now with digital being so prevalent not only to younger people, but return to workers after maternity leave, or the unemployed, or others, it's a really good way to get education for free. So you get the badges. So you get your bronze award, or you will get your silver award. And then the lead up to that so you get your little badges. So it's in different things, you've got like the walker one, the entrepreneurial one, it helps you do coding etc... Alison Edgar 3:14 So again, if you look at that as a bit of a gap in the market is if you do because as an example, I continued to work while my children were small, but I worked part time. But a lot of people give that time fully to the children. And then they have to go back and they potentially come from corporate world and because the skills have like gone or evaporated. Because techs move so quickly that I just thought that sounded really brilliant thing to help people that are going back to work, help their CV, give them new skills. And ultimately, I think give them confidence because especially with the badges everybody likes to think the one I had, you know up a level or so. I just felt it was something I could get behind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNpfjPJL-D4 Alison Edgar 4:00 Also, I've got a young team, sort of like Rebecca and my team, she's achieved her silver award, and she is not a graduate, I take on quite a lot of graduates from intern programs. But Rebecca hasn't really get any full formal A levels or anything. And for her, it just gave her a whole new lease of life. Alison Edgar 4:20 So I can see what it does for our team. I was honoured to be made an ambassador for them. So I go add skills in the local area. And I talked about idea and how, again, young people can help with their CV a little bit more, the personal statement a little bit more to really, again,

'Smarter Event Planning” Sponsored by Asemblr is hosted by Jason Allan Scott, The Eventrepreneur . Episode1 : Hi, I’m Alison Edgar, The Entrepreneur’s Godmother: she helps entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes learn to love selling. She is passionate about helping startups and SMEs which is why I’ve been voted one of the UK’s top 10 business advisors, won multiple awards and been invited to both Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Get to know her better here : This podcast is proudly brought to you by ASEMBLR find out more about them here https://asemblr.com/

This week I'm joined by Alison Edgar - The Entrepreneur's Godmother - who has been crushing the sales training circuit up and down the country with a dedicated network of happy clients and fans. Alison has suffered lifelong dyslexia and began her business at age 47, but hasn't let that stop her becoming a bestselling business author with her new book, Secret of Successful Sales. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/on3OgItlnIw Catching up after a recent sales seminar in Bristol, UK we discuss how weaknesses can offer a chance to differentiate yourself in the business world, her experience having tea with the queen, and - of course - Alison's top tips for becoming a successful salesperson. Get the book: https://amzn.to/2QS70OZ About Alison... “If you don't sell you don't have a business!!” I teach, start-up, micro, owner managed businesses and sales teams how to sell their fantastic products and services, over and over again. My mission statement “When it's delivered correctly, sales and customer service are exactly the same thing”, does not come from a textbook, but a combination of my passion and experience of international hotel management and sales for some of world's top blue chip companies. Find out more about Alison… Website: www.entrepreneursgodmother.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneurscanclan/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNWbcFDxg93Tt8Q0N1JGkQ/featured LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/thealisonedgar A huge thank you to Desk Lodge, Bristol for their hospitality. Set in the formerly known Evening Post building, DeskLodge Bristol is in a fantastic position minutes from Temple Meads train station, Cabot Circus & Castle Park. With a thriving community and amazing businesses based here, we are very proud of our Bristol workspace. Discover hot-desking, fixed desks, private offices and meeting rooms in a quirky, fun space. Simply drop in and pay by the hour, buy a membership or become a resident DeskLodger. We have also became a popular host to many fantastic events and local meet ups. Ps don't miss our end of month socials. Check them out here Follow Colleagues Getting Coffee on social media and don't miss the conversation! Facebook Instagram Twitter Website Want to get a coffee? Connect with Annelies on LinkedIn

Alison Edgar, aka The Entrepreneur's Godmother, started her own venture when she was 46. Since then, she's been voted one of the UK's top business advisors, with invitations to both Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. It turns out that sales (selling) is a surprising handy skill to have when it comes to overcoming anxiety. We spoke about: - The importance of asking for help. - Making a change, even when it scares you. - How to avoid regret. - Why 'real men' do cry. - Dealing with anxiety, stress and pressure at work, and as an entrepreneur. - The pressures of money and debt. - Staying motivated through challenges.

Alison is one of those people who you just can't help wanting to listen to! Her enthusiasm is infectious When talking to the Entrepreneur's Godmother, you might expect there to be some talk of wands and tiaras but would you expect Golf and The Godfather to come up as well? I didn't!  Alongside golf and the godfather, we talk about how Alison became the Entrepreneur's Godmother, her knowledge of sales, her best-selling book and selling from your heart with passion. Our conversation covers: Going from corporate saleswoman to The Entrepreneur's Godmother Imposter Syndrome The Tom Daley moment! The role of your mindset and confidence in business Sales & customer service are the same thing when done well. Collaboration is king! How she overcame her belief that she could not write a book and became a bestselling author Staying resilient and managing her own mental well-being How her hot tub helps! Sales success doesn't have to be financial Show Links 

As a salesperson, how do you navigate your time for sales? Is this an area that you struggle with? What are some best practices that could help leaders like you utilize your time more efficiently? On this episode of #SellingWithSocial, you’ll hear from sales expert Alison Edgar. Alison Edgar is the MD of Sales Coaching Solutions and The Entrepreneur’s Godmother. Voted one of the UK’s Top 10 Business Advisers, Alison works with SME’s, start-ups, micros and entrepreneurs to help them grow their business through effective sales. As a sales coach, Alison works with businesses around her Four Key Pillars of Sales methodology, to help business owners and sales teams gain essential sales skills and knowledge and implement strategies and processes enabling them to sell more of their fantastic products and services. Through training, coaching, workshops and online courses, Alison has worked with hundreds of businesses. Make sure to listen to this episode to get Alison’s valuable perspective on how to make time for sales and much more! Be Bold, Champion Change! If you want to succeed in life, you have come to terms with your feelings toward risk. Some people love to push the envelope and find little difficulty in facing risks. Then there are others who are clinically risk averse, they hate risk and avoid it at all costs. Where do you land? Are you firmly in one camp or the other? Maybe you find yourself somewhere in the middle. If you want to stand out as a leader in sales, you have to be willing to regularly take risks. If you want to make time for sales, you have to be bold and take charge of your life and your schedule. Ultimately, your life is an accumulation of how you spend your days. What will you decide? Listen to this episode of #SellingWithSocial as Alison and I discuss the benefits and opportunities created by taking risks. Don’t miss it! Creating Time for Sales One of the biggest struggles as a salesperson is addressing the issue that over half of our time is spent on administrative related work. What is the solution? Should marketing ease up and give salespeople a break? Should salespeople suck it up and deal with it? On this episode of #SellingWithSocial, Alison explains how she would approach and handle this tension. Alison says that challenging the marketing team and the structures that create the volume of non-productivity based activities can be accomplished in a constructive way. She also pushes back and explains why salespeople need to see their obligations as a larger way of life that can’t always fit into a nice and neat 9 to 5 structure. Don’t miss this episode as Alison goes even further with these concepts so leaders like you can create more time for sales! How to be a “Star” in Sales If you’ve been in sales for very long, you know that there are different “types” of people in the industry. What type of salesperson are you? How would others describe you and your approach to sales? On this episode of #SellingWithSocial, Alison gives a rundown of several different types of salespeople and goes on to encourage leaders like you to aim for being known as a “Star.” What is a “Star” according to Alison? A star is someone who always stays positive, no matter the circumstances, they choose to focus on the positive. Stars are also resilient and laser-focused, they stay on top of relevant information and they know when and where that information is best utilized. Discover additional insights and lessons like this one from Alison’s perspective on this episode! The Four Pillars of Sales What are the essential and foundational concepts of sales in your opinion? If you were limited to just four, what would you include? Is it easy to narrow it down to four concepts? On this episode of #SellingWithSocial, you’ll learn from Alison as she reveals her “Four Pillars of Sales.” Understanding Behaviors Sales Process Sales Strategy Confidence Are you a master of one pillar? All four? What will it take for you to improve so you can create more time for sales and perform at the top of your game? Find out as Alison expands on these concepts and more on this episode! Outline of This Episode [1:05] I introduce my guest, Alison Edgar. [2:45] Alison’s background & how she got the name, “The Entrepreneur's Godmother” [6:30] What inspired Alison to write her book? [12:00] Alison shares her struggles with Dyslexia. [17:00] 3 takeaways for the sales and marketing community from Alison’s content. [19:00] Wrestling with time management. [24:00] Be bold and champion change! [28:00] What it takes to be a “Star” in sales. [31:00] Alison’s advice for salespeople. Resources Mentioned www.alisonedgar.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-edgar/ https://www.facebook.com/theentrepreneursgodmother/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/entrepreneurscanclan/ https://twitter.com/aliedgar13 https://www.pinterest.co.uk/theentrepreneursgodmother/ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People   Enterprise Nation Coyote Ugly Connect with Mario! www.vengreso.com On Facebook On Twitter On YouTube On LinkedIn

November 2, 2016 Entrepreneurs God Mother Alison Edgar & Holiday Gift List Jessica Offerjost