Podcasts about outreaching

“LinkedIn is the world's largest cocktail party, and you have to treat it very much like a cocktail party. LinkedIn is a full offensive strategy that you have to get.”In this Lead with Culture episode, we are joined by Donnie Boivin, the Founder of Success Champions Networking, to talk all things networking.Donnie shares his key effective networking strategies on LinkedIn, the importance of authenticity and vulnerability in business, and the value of consistency and structured content creation for business development on LinkedIn. Tune in to hear Donnie's secrets expanding your network.In this episode, you'll learn:Focus on creating LinkedIn-tailored content by crafting your posts, interactions, and networking tactics with the platform's unique audience in mindBuild meaningful relationships by engaging authentically – join conversations, comment with value, and connect without a sales pitchDon't just sporadically post on LinkedIn; plan and execute a routine that showcases your brand and value consistentlyThings to listen for:[04:28] Outreaching works but hurts your brand[11:35] Engage, discuss, and challenge to create dialogue[24:29] Platform-specific strategies for success[31:29] The need for real conversations in entrepreneurship[34:12] Get comfortable doing what you don't wantResources:Floyd CoachingThe Culture AssessmentMatthew Kelly's BooksFloyd Coaching's BlogConnect with the Guest:Donnie's LinkedInConnect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:Kate Volman's LinkedinFloyd Coaching on LinkedinFloyd Consulting on FacebookFloyd Consulting on TwitterFloyd Consulting on YouTubeFloyd Consulting on Instagram

Peggy R. White is the Founder and CEO of OMG Women Outreaching Women (OMG W.O.W.) a Non-Profit supporting Black women through education, coaching, mentorship, and inspiration. Stay Connected: OMG WOMEN OUTREACHING WOMEN. Subscribe to Beepodcast Newsletter for updates, special events and be a part of this vibrant community of change-makers. Don't miss out! Tune in to the "Black Entrepreneur Experience" podcast, and be sure to subscribe, share, and listen to our episodes as we navigate the path to entrepreneurial greatness together. Your support helps us amplify the voices and stories that need to be heard. Together, we can create a thriving ecosystem of Black entrepreneurship. Subscribe to our Newsletter https://www.drfrancesrichards.com/ for updates, special events and be a part of this vibrant community of change-makers. Don't miss out! Tune in to the "Black Entrepreneur Experience" podcast, and be sure to subscribe, share, and listen to our episodes as we navigate the path to entrepreneurial greatness together. Your support helps us amplify the voices and stories that need to be heard. Together, we can create a thriving ecosystem of Black entrepreneurship.

Recorded at the 9am Traditional Service

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On this solo episode of The NO Bullsh*t Manifestation Show, Kat talks about:Where she has been + some major podcast changesThe inspiration and freedom that comes from being open to changeWhat happens when you allow what is meant to be, to play outReaching your dreams and then building on top of themReleasing your control to The Universe, God, etc.Coming to a place of love and acceptance within your body Living a full life, free of substances If this episode resonated with you, or you know it will help someone else - please share it. Your support of the show is how I can continue to make this show better and better.If you are interested in how you can work with Kat & gain her support, check out the resources linked down below:Join The NO Bullsh*t Manifestation Starter Pack: https://www.katcozadd.com/starter-packPodcast Instagram: https://instagram.com/thenobsmanifestationshowKat's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katcozadd/

Pastor Denis is courageously leading his war-tattered congregation in victory. Please take a listen and share with someone who needs some encouragement today.

Aside from having a product that people would want to share, it is also important to know that working with affiliates and influencers is about building good relationships. In this episode, Eric Sterling, CEO of Brio Product Group, shares his company's strategy for successfully working with influencers and affiliates. Learn how to identify them, where they are, and what to give them. Listen and enjoy this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEThere's always room for improvement with product categories.It's easy to hear a strategy but try and understand how that's going to work for your brand because each brand and company is so different.To test if affiliate or influencer marketing will work for your product, you can give someone your product and if you get positive feedback from them, it will probably work for influencer and affiliate marketing.Trust is the highest form of currency when it comes to influencer partnerships.Outreaching with influencers must be personalized. You've got to have a reason for connecting with them and show them how they are going to benefit from the relationship. You have to give influencers some direction regarding talking points and explain your brand and brand values. Give yourself as many chances as you possibly can.Recommended Tool:  Enquire Labshttps://www.enquirelabs.com Recommended Book: Mindset by Carol Dweckhttps://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Phychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322 Today's Guest:Eric Steckling  is the CEO of Brio Product GroupBrio Product Group creates personal care products for health and wellness.Connect and learn more about Eric and Brio Product Group here:Website: https://www.briopg.com E-mail Address: eric@briopg.comThis month's sponsor is Triple Whale. Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit  https://www.trytriplewhale.com  and use our promo code listed there for 15% off today.***Find our upGrowth PROMO CODE here: https://www.trytriplewhale.comWe love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:upgrowthcommerce.com/growIf you've been paying attention and your brand is ready to GROW, apply now to be the one new brand we take on this month!https://upgrowthcommerce.com/apply

I've got a interesting and perspective changing one for you today with my guest Min Yoo BackgroundGrew up in Southern California going to school at UC Irvine and USCMoved to Washington DC to expand her horizons and work for two philanthropic companiesMade her way back home to work for City national Bank in data and advanced analyticsCurrently working as Director of marketing analyticsMin also has an entrepreneurial spirit and has a lot going on these days which we will cover Highlights Hard working, loved working and having her own $$$Money shift to an abundant mindsetWatching your knuckles to see if you need a changeFinding your voice and being an introvertSay what you want to say and don't try to understand what you think they might want you to sayFinding mentors organicallyThe power of follow upBeing authentically curious to uncover great thingsBeing Scrappy and figuring things outReaching out to executives as the highest form of respectMBA was both vertical and horizontal with it's impactExcited about the opportunities coming her wayLight bulb moment - when friends get laid off4 buckets of lifeReaching out and getting help when you need itTrips to the library with MomYou'll never guess why Min wants to go to IstanbulLiving and owning a farm

I am stoked to be sharing a conversation I had with the super talented photographer and nomad Michelle Vdjik. Michelle is without a doubt a giant within the fashion photography space. Her photojournalistic style of photography has led her to work with numerous international clients like Savannah Morrow the Label, Authentic Beauty Concept International, Fella Swim, Acacia Swim, and many more. In this episode Michelle Vdjik and I talk about how she got her start in the fashion photography space, how she goes about organizing and reaching out to clients, establishing meaningful connections with your subjects, changing ideas of what beauty is within the fashion industry, not being afraid to ask for help with your business so much more. Links to things discussed in this episode: Michelle's Instagram: HEREMichelle's Website: HERE

In this episode, Stephanie and I talk about how Stephanie got to photographing some of the incredible stories she has covered to date, outreaching to editorials, working on side hustles, her creative process, advice for photographers starting out now and so much more. Links discussed in the episode: Stephanies Website: http://stephaniefoden.com/Stephanies IG: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniefoden/?hl=en

Prospecting is the skill, language, and activity of creating new connections and relationships. In the podcasting space, prospecting can help you get people to consume your content, get guests, and grow your audience.Prospecting is more like diet and exercise; no one argues if it works, the question is how to get yourself to do it and include it in your podcast routine.For podcasters, prospecting has a cumulative benefit that massively grows your podcast.Click play to learn more about why prospecting is excellent for podcasting and how to build effective habits around it.Key TakeawaysWhy Facebook is great for prospecting (04:22)Prospecting is like diet and exercise; no one argues if it works (08:14)How prospecting for podcasts builds a cumulative effect (09:49)The one message that boosts conversion by 30% (19:24)Building effective habits and routines around prospecting (22:00)Why you need prospecting as a podcaster (26:16)How to effectively listen to your audience to understand their pain points (28:30)Additional Resourceswww.facebook.com/groups/SalesAscendersInnerCircle--------Join our FREE Facebook Group, Podcast Success SecretsBe sure to follow me on Instagram @iamdaxyIf you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple PodcastContact: Daxy@LegacyPodcasting.comWebsite - LegacyPodcasting.com** Freebies**--

The purpose of the church isn't merely to have a place to come and receive and enjoy community together - there is something greater here too! Jonathan opens up the Scriptures and speaks on GLORIFICATION (Worshipping God) and EDIFICATION (Growing as Disciples and Loving One Another). This equips us for MISSION (Sharing the wealth we have in Jesus with our neighbours)Therefore, one of our 7 core longings is: “We long for an out-reaching love, for apart from authentic, active service there is no true religion”

A lustrous beautiful pearl is formed when an irritant enters a clam and as a defense mechanism, a fluid is released to coat the irritant. Like a clam, we often face a lot of irritation from one another and instead of counter-attacking the negativity, let us embrace it, lean on it and use it as a key ingredient in transforming our lives   Let this inspirational episode, open our hearts, and let out the goodness in it. Look not into the negativity but through the eyes of love and compassion. Let us not fail humanity once more.   Key Takeaways:   Social Media, a place for everything; the largest platform for non-verbal communication  Charity’s recent thrashing experience on social media and realizing how it became a breeding ground of anger and strife Outreaching, starting an open conversation in dealing with bitterness and anger towards each other Accepting and respecting that each of us have different beliefs and perspectives Surviving a traumatic experience; how Charity fought her greatest battle and understanding what is trauma and its nature Coping strategies, prevention and the early signs of Complex Trauma that oftentimes lead to PTSD Charity’s welcoming invitation for us to openly embrace peace in our lives --       Grab your copy of my new book (and #1 New Release), "Meant For More; Igniting Your Purpose In a World That Tries to Dim Your Light... go to Book.WeAreMeantForMore.com today!       --       This episode is brought to you by my Meant For More Challenge...14-days to Unshakable Confidence. If you are feeling stuck, if you are tired of playing small or dimming your light...if you are READY to OWN THE ROOM - any room that you walk into, I invite you to join my Meant For More Challenge! Head over to https://WeAreMeantForMore.com to find out more…       Be sure to visit my website at https://CharityMajors.com       And come hang out with me on social media:   @CharityMajors on Instagram and Charity Majors on Facebook.   https://www.instagram.com/charitymajors/   https://www.facebook.com/CharityMajorsFanPage/       Join my FREE FB Group:   http://www.charitymajors.com/meantformoretribe       I look forward to connecting with you!       xoxo - Charity

The Frederick Police Department is a progressive community-involved organization, committed to sustaining Frederick's superior quality of life. We work in partnership with our citizens to ensure their satisfaction, and we believe that our commitment to them makes Frederick a wonderful place to live and work. Our citizens and visitors enjoy a close-knit feeling of community, and we are an integral part of the lives and activities of that community. We care about our city, and embrace Frederick as our home.

In this second episode of season 1, Thibaut welcomes Dale Dupree, Founder of The Sales Rebellion. Dale has more than 13 years of experience selling copiers in Florida. He is known as The Copier Warrior and he has built an approach to cold outreach that really stands out from any other out there. In early 2019, he launched The Sales Rebellion, a sales training and coaching community, focused on taking on the status quo in sales. You will learn the origin story of Dale, as well as actionable tactics to get noticed by your prospects when outreaching. You can join the Sales Rebellion here: https://www.thesalesrebellion.com/join/ (https://www.thesalesrebellion.com/join/) You can find Dale on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/copierwarrior/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/copierwarrior/) Enjoy the show!

We see an outreaching community

Many sellers have a tough time with outbound sales, so we're spending the month of June focused on the topic, and today we're specifically addressing the fundamentals of sales outreach.   Wes Schaeffer entered sales in 1997, covering stocks, bonds, retail, real estate, and high tech. He decided that, since sales was crazy and uncertain, he'd bet on himself. He laid the foundation for The Sales Whisperer, where he helps people with sales training.    Outbound struggles   Too many sellers mistakenly believe that outbound is dead. That cold calling and email are dead. The truth is you simply have to do a little bit of homework.   You have to choose who to lose. You can't help everybody. #IdealCustomers   Some people would say that because everybody drinks water, if you sell water, everyone is your prospect. But some people are content drinking water out of a hose. Not everyone will spend money on your stuff.    Client selection is important. You have to figure out who's going to buy your stuff and who isn't.    The number of people who are ready, willing, and able to buy what you sell right now is in the single digits. If, for example, you just bought four brand new tires for your car, it doesn't matter that you're having a 50-percent-off sale.    Follow a script   Now that you know who you're going after, what will you say? Will you fall into the trap of not following a script because it feels unnatural?   The Rock has made over $60 million a year by regurgitating scripts. He makes it his own and he makes it believable. The truth for all of us is that we're living on a script.    I once talked in a presentation about seeing the band Chicago and about the fact that they play the same 20 songs in the same order at every single show. What would happen if they decided to just wing it every now and then?   That's not what professionals do. Professionals practice things until they can't get them wrong. You could wake them out of a stupor, hand them a guitar or keyboard, and they could play any song perfectly.    Practicing skills   Look at Tom Brady or Lebron James or Tiger Woods. I guarantee you they are still practicing. Are you willing to practice the little bitty things? How do you open? What do you say? How do you title your emails? How do you build interest?   If you sound like everybody else, I'm going to treat you like everybody else. The only way I can differentiate between you and everyone else that sounds like you is on price.    Think of the phone calls you get from an autodialer. They're nice because they streamline things, but when people hear the long pause while it's connecting to the first available person, they are completely uninterested. Then they mispronounce your name and you're done.    Diagnose the problem   Wes recommends at least five emails in any outbound process. He also pointed out the distinction between frequently-asked questions and should-ask questions. FAQs can be written out and sent in an email. The should-ask questions allow you to differentiate yourself. These are the things the prospect doesn't know.     Understand your product and the situation of your prospects well enough to know what issues might arise. Our goal in prospecting is to ask a question that our prospect can't answer.    Doctors do the same, and it's why we trust them. When they take the time to diagnose the problem, we trust their prescription.    Ask questions   How are you generating leads? What trends are you seeing? Is it becoming more expensive to run ads? How is your team performing? Do you experience ups and downs?   Spend some time on your should-ask questions.    We're all too close to our own offerings. There's an adage that says you can't read the label from inside the bottle.    Outreaching sequences   Timing matters in outreach, and that's why you need multimedia multi-step followup sequences. You need a success story about a prospect in your niche. You need a case study or a video testimonial. And then you're off and running.    Dripping a prospect is a little like dating. When you continue coming back to your prospects, they eventually decide that there must be something good about your offering.    You have your target market or your dream 100. It's worth persisting because eventually something is going to happen: a machine will break or the competition will miss a delivery. Maybe an employee will quit or they will have their own quality issues.   Start early, stay late   Remember that whatever you can measure you can improve.    Jeffrey Gitomer speaks about gold calling because he says there isn't such thing as pure cold calling in B2B. You're most likely to reach people by phone. You can do direct mail and other things, and they may work.    Executives and decision-makers get to the office early and they stay late. Since I'm a west coast guy, I start calling the east coast about 2 p.m. when the assistants and receptionists have gone home. Same with the lunch hour. The hourly people take their breaks while the boss keeps working.    Be strategic about your calls. Use LinkedIn to find information about your prospects. Where did they go to school? Do they have a recent article? The research demonstrates that you did your homework. It differentiates you from your competition.    Little things add up. Trust the process and have a process.   “The Fundamentals of Sales Outreach” episode resources   Connect with Wes at thesaleswhisperer.com. You can find his social media links and his phone number there.    Connect with me at donald@thesalesevangelist.com.   Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free. This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance.   TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that. The new semester of TSE Certified Sales Training Program begins in April and it would be an absolute honor to have you join us.   Tools for sellers   This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.   Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out.   I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.   If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Tanya Janca (@shehackspurple)   DevOps Tools for free/cheap.     They are all on github right, so they are all free?     Python, Docker, k8s, Jenkins     Licensing can be a problem     Free-mium software, or trialware is useful? OWASP DevSlop     Module     Nicole Becker         Pixie - insecure instagram “Betty Coin” SSLlabs - Qualys   Mentoring Monday:     What is “Mentoring Monday”?     What does it take to be a good mentor?     Should a mentee have a goal in mind?         Something other than “I want to be just like you”?     Do you assist in creating the relationship?         What if they don’t meld?         Are there any restrictions?     Any place in someone’s career?     How do you apply?     Advocating - Leading Cyber Ladies: https://twitter.com/LadiesCyber WoSec International - https://twitter.com/WoSECtweets     19 Chapters worldwide         Africa, No. America, Europe     Goal? (hacker workshops)     Submitting talks at cons     Outreaching (how would people get involved)     Mentorship involved in this?   Global AppSec   Videos on youtube:     OWASP DevSlop: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSmjcWvgVBqF3x_7e5rfe3A     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSmjcWvgVBqF3x_7e5rfe3A Blog Site: https://dev.to/shehackspurple Check out our Store on Teepub! https://brakesec.com/store Join us on our #Slack Channel! Send a request to @brakesec on Twitter or email bds.podcast@gmail.com #Brakesec Store!:https://www.teepublic.com/user/bdspodcast #Spotify: https://brakesec.com/spotifyBDS #RSS: https://brakesec.com/BrakesecRSS #Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/c/BDSPodcast #iTunes Store Link: https://brakesec.com/BDSiTunes #Google Play Store: https://brakesec.com/BDS-GooglePlay Our main site:  https://brakesec.com/bdswebsite #iHeartRadio App:  https://brakesec.com/iHeartBrakesec #SoundCloud: https://brakesec.com/SoundcloudBrakesec Comments, Questions, Feedback: bds.podcast@gmail.com Support Brakeing Down Security Podcast by using our #Paypal: https://brakesec.com/PaypalBDS OR our #Patreon https://brakesec.com/BDSPatreon #Twitter: @brakesec @boettcherpwned @bryanbrake @infosystir #Player.FM : https://brakesec.com/BDS-PlayerFM #Stitcher Network: https://brakesec.com/BrakeSecStitcher #TuneIn Radio App: https://brakesec.com/TuneInBrakesec

Announcements: InfoSec Campout Conference (Eventbrite, social contract, etc): https://www.infoseccampout.com All Day Devops (https://www.alldaydevops.com) free talks online... Next conference starts 06 November 2019 ------ Tanya Janca (@shehackspurple) @wosectweets - Women of Security DevOps Tools for free/cheap.     They are all on github right, so they are all free?     Python, Docker, k8s, Jenkins     Licensing can be a problem     Free-mium software, or trialware is useful? OWASP DevSlop     Module     Nicole Becker         Pixie - insecure instagram “Betty Coin” SSLlabs - Qualys   Mentoring Monday:     What is “Mentoring Monday”?     What does it take to be a good mentor?     Should a mentee have a goal in mind?         Something other than “I want to be just like you”?     Do you assist in creating the relationship?         What if they don’t meld?         Are there any restrictions?     Any place in someone’s career?     How do you apply?     Advocating and being a good ally Leading Cyber Ladies: https://twitter.com/LadiesCyber WoSec International - https://twitter.com/WoSECtweets     19 Chapters worldwide         Africa, No. America, Europe     Goal? (hacker workshops)     Submitting talks at cons     Outreaching (how would people get involved)     Mentorship involved in this?   Global AppSec   Videos on youtube:     OWASP DevSlop: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSmjcWvgVBqF3x_7e5rfe3A     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSmjcWvgVBqF3x_7e5rfe3A Blog Site: https://dev.to/shehackspurple   Check out our Store on Teepub! https://brakesec.com/store Join us on our #Slack Channel! Send a request to @brakesec on Twitter or email bds.podcast@gmail.com #Brakesec Store!:https://www.teepublic.com/user/bdspodcast #Spotify: https://brakesec.com/spotifyBDS #RSS: https://brakesec.com/BrakesecRSS #Youtube Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/c/BDSPodcast #iTunes Store Link: https://brakesec.com/BDSiTunes #Google Play Store: https://brakesec.com/BDS-GooglePlay Our main site:  https://brakesec.com/bdswebsite #iHeartRadio App:  https://brakesec.com/iHeartBrakesec #SoundCloud: https://brakesec.com/SoundcloudBrakesec Comments, Questions, Feedback: bds.podcast@gmail.com Support Brakeing Down Security Podcast by using our #Paypal: https://brakesec.com/PaypalBDS OR our #Patreon https://brakesec.com/BDSPatreon #Twitter: @brakesec @boettcherpwned @bryanbrake @infosystir #Player.FM : https://brakesec.com/BDS-PlayerFM #Stitcher Network: https://brakesec.com/BrakeSecStitcher #TuneIn Radio App: https://brakesec.com/TuneInBrakesec

The odds are not in your favor. There are 100,000 ideal prospects in the U.S., but there are also 100 competitors. You aren't sure when your prospects will be ready to buy. You aren't even sure if they already have a solution to the problem you'd like to help them solve. But what if you […] The post TSE 847: My Two Newest Sales Outreaching Tools appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

We are passionate to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our neighborhood and to the world. This message was presented by Daniel Riemenschneider at Bloomingdale Church on April 28/29, 2018.

Pastor Simon Jaggard from Light and Life Hayle preaches on the importance of outreach to our faith as well as the motivation and method behind it.

An old Native American Proverb: “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn them. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” Announcer: And now your host. Kelly Coughlin. Kelly Coughlin is a CPA and CEO of BankBosun, a management consulting firm helping bank C Level Officers navigate risk and discover reward. He is the host of the syndicated audio podcast, BankBosun.com. Kelly brings over 25 years of experience with companies like PWC, Lloyds Bank, and Merrill Lynch. On the podcast, Kelly interviews key executives in the banking ecosystem to provide bank C suite officers, risk management, technology, and investment ideas and solutions to help them navigate risks and discover reward. And now your host, Kelly Coughlin. Kelly Coughlin: Greetings. This is Kelly Coughlin, CPA and CEO of BankBosun. As most of you listeners know, BankBosun and I as CEO are committed to helping community banks navigate risk and discover reward in a sea of risk, regulation, and revenue threats. While risk and regulation threats are key and critical forces to consider when managing your bank, revenue threats and revenue opportunities are what really gets me excited and jazzed. Absent high-quality revenues and revenue growth, it becomes very challenging to deal with the other two. I like using the term creating revenue. Some have asked me, why the word creating? Well, it's simple. Revenues really are the only thing that businesses create, like an artist from Greenfield. More blank canvas. Sometimes from nothing, sometimes from just an idea or a vision. We have an idea. We put some packaging on the idea. We offer it to others, some purchase the idea, and shazam. We've created a revenue. Expenses on the other hand, are revenue ideas created by others.   If we like those ideas, we have to pay for them. Those are expenses to us and revenues to them. In my mind, the creation of revenues is first and foremost the primary duty of the chief executive of a company. Everybody else is responsible for ensuring that these revenues generate profits for the company. Consequently, creating revenues is becoming my singular purpose with BankBosun, whether it be through improving your public speaking with help from my actor colleague Chris Carlson at Narrative Pros or using our tactical ecosystem marketing strategy to produce your own syndicated podcast and develop new customers and centers of influence, guaranteed. Or developing fine-tuned sales messaging that is clear, concise, and credible. It is our mission and goal to help community bankers create and grow revenues through the utilization and implementation of some key practical tools. Today, we are going to talk about sales messaging.   To be clear, sales messaging includes sales phone scripts, one-on-one personal visits, emails, and presentations. For years, my mantra on sales messages has been that they must be clear, concise, and credible. To me, sales messages are a bit like poetry. I like to say, you have small words to communicate big thoughts effectively and efficiently. However, the one thing I had missed was to ensure not only your message was clear, concise, and credible, but interesting, attention-grabbing, and memorable. My accounting background is one that tends to lead me to believe that simplicity, clarity, and accuracy are all you really need, but the reality is, if your message isn't interesting, your audience will never really hear how clear, concise, and credible it is. This leads me to my daughter, Cara. I have four daughters. Two months ago, Cara started selling drugs. Marijuana. How do you think I felt about that? Actually, terrific. Cara took a job communicating to medical doctors the benefits of medical marijuana for certain types of patients with chronic pain or seizures. Totally legit, totally legal.   She works for one of the highly regulated medical cannabis distributors in the state of Minnesota. In the course of talking to Cara about her sales job, I learned that she and apparently many millennials refer to sales as outreaching, not sales. Outreaching. Apparently, sales is a bad word. As we started talking about how and what to communicate to the doctors and clinics to whom she was outreaching, we started working on her outreaching phone call script and her outreaching office visit messaging script. I started to research ways and methods I could help her with her outreaching script, and I started coming across the works of Paul Smith. Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. He's a bestselling author of the books Sell with a Story, Lead with a Story, and Parenting with a Story. I purchased the audio book version of Sell with the Story, and I must say I loved it so much. I didn't buy the whole company. Rather, I bought the printed book as well. I told Cara to listen to it and read the book. I thought it would help her with her outreaching script. It did help her.   It helped Cara convert a sales script that needed to quickly overcome the inherent skepticism medical doctors had about what was once an illegal drug to an effective outreaching story about how medical cannabis helped a 14-year-old boy who had repetitive seizures and was teased by classmates to now live a happy and healthy life. Today, we're going to focus on sales messaging because today, I'm going to interview the author of that book, Paul Smith. I'm going to divide this interview into two podcasts. Part one we are going to focus on the general perspective on what storytelling is. Why is it important? And the theory behind his work. In part two, we're going to focus on specifics related to the financial services and community banking space so our listeners can come away with some clear and specific ideas to help structure clear, concise, and credible messaging that is interesting, attention-grabbing, and memorable. As part of his research on the effectiveness of storytelling, Paul has personally interviewed over 250 CEOs, executives, leaders, sales people in 25 countries, documented over 2,000 individual stories. Leveraging those stories in interviews, Paul has identified the components of effective storytelling and has developed templates and tools to apply them in practice. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Time, Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Post, PR News, and Success Magazine, among others. Paul holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife and two sons in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio. With that background and context, let's get Paul here. Paul, are you on the line? Paul Smith: Yes, I am, Kelly. It's good to be here. Kelly Coughlin: Great. Did I mess up anything in that introduction? Paul Smith: No, that was great. I'm pretty sure that was me you were talking about. So, that's good. Kelly Coughlin: More importantly, how bad was my storytelling in that introduction? Be honest. I can handle it. Paul Smith: No, no. That's good. I liked hearing about your daughter and a very nice surprising beginning to that with the marijuana sales. I didn't see exactly what twist that was going to take, but it clearly took an interesting one. So, well done right off the bat. Kelly Coughlin: To be honest with you, I put that in there after having read your book. I thought, I think that's what you're talking about, is get something that is interesting and personal. I got a specific time, person, event, and that's what you're all about, aren't you? Paul Smith: You did, and you got a nice surprise at the beginning to grab attention. Well done. Something must have worked in the book. I'm glad to hear that. Kelly Coughlin: Let's talk about the book that I read, Sell with a Story. Tell us what exactly is a sales story. Let's start with the very basic thing. Paul Smith: That’s a great place to start, because I think a lot of people have a very different idea about what the word story means, especially when attached to the word sales. Imagine it's Monday morning and you're in a meeting with a number of your peers and comrades and you're preparing for a big sales pitch that you've got to make in a week or so and the boss comes in and maybe that's you and leans out over the table and says, all right, people. What's our story? Now, do you think for a minute that what that boss means by story is an actual story? A narrative about something that happened to somebody sometime. The answer is almost certainly no. What they mean is, what is the series of facts and data and arguments that we can put together in a logical sequence probably in a Power Point presentation that we're going to walk the prospect through such that by the end of the meeting, we've got the highest odds of successfully making a sale? That's what they mean by, what's our story? In other words, what's our sales pitch? But that's not the kind of thing that anybody would have called the story 20 years ago. They would have called it a sales pitch or talking points or a message track or presentation slides, or something.   Today, people use the word story for all kind of things that was really never originally intended to mean. When I talk about a sales story, I do not mean another word for a sales pitch. I mean actual stories about things that happen to somebody. The indicators of that are the things that you mentioned earlier. There's a time, a place. There's a main character like your daughter. That main character has a goal. There's usually someone or something getting in the way of that goal. There are events that transpire throughout the story that hopefully by the end resolve themselves nicely in either the main character achieving their goal or not achieving their goal, and generally some lessons to be learned from it. That's a story, an actual story. As opposed to a sales pitch, which is, Kelly, let me tell you the three reasons why you should hire me as your sales consultant. Then, I give you my list. That's not a story. That's a list, or that's a sales pitch. That's what a sales pitch is, essentially. It's a list of reasons why you should buy what I'm selling.   One of the uses of sales stories is contained within the sales pitch itself. You may have 30 minutes that your prospect has agreed to meet with you face-to-face or on the phone. So, you've got 30 minutes to make your sales pitch. You've got 30 minutes on the phone and you're going to spend five minutes of it building rapport and then 25 minutes of it on your actual sales pitch. Of that 25 minutes, you might spend five minutes actually telling a story. You might tell two, two and a half minute stories within that 25 minutes of well-structured logical sales pitch. The rest of it is the normal kind of thing as you would do when you're making a sales pitch. You're giving people reasons why they should hire you. You can also use these stories at other places in the sales process that is not the sales pitch. The whole sales process is a much longer thing. It starts with introducing yourself and building rapport and yes, making the sales pitch itself, but also handling objections and closing the sale, and even managing customer relationships after the sale. So, there are sales stories that you will use throughout all of those phases of the sales process and only one of those phases is the actual sales pitch itself. Does that make sense? Kelly Coughlin: Okay, I got it. Paul Smith: In fact, can I share an example with you? I think that’ll make it even more clear. Kelly Coughlin: Okay. Paul Smith: May, a year ago, we were at an art fair. It was actually something that happened to me and wife. She was looking for some art for our kids’ bathroom at home. We're going booth to booth. We get to this one booth of this underwater photographer. He just takes these mesmerizing pictures of underwater life like sea anemones and coral reefs and sea turtles and things like that. She gets emotionally attached to this one picture that to me just looked about as out of place as a pig in the ocean. The reason is because it literally was a picture of a pig in the ocean. I just thought that was a craziest thing. Pigs don’t live in the ocean. They generally, you don’t find them swimming around. When I finally got a chance to ask the artist himself, I said, dude. What's with the pig in the ocean? That is when the magic started. He said, it was the craziest thing. That picture was taken in the Bahamas off the coast of this uninhabited island called Big Major Cay.   Apparently, what happened is a few years earlier some local entrepreneur decided he wanted to raise a pig farm for bacon, I suppose. He bought all these pigs and he throws them out on this uninhabited island so he can keep them for free. The problem was that there wasn’t much on the island for them to eat other than cactus. Apparently, pigs don’t like cactus. He said they weren't thriving. They got lucky in that they noticed that there was some local restaurant owner on a neighboring island who would boat his kitchen refuse every night over to Big Major Cay and dump it a few dozen yards offshore, just literally over the side of the boat. Pretty soon, these pigs get hungry enough that they're like, I'm going to swim out there and get that food, even though they generally aren't known to be native swimmers. So, one pig braves the waters and then two pigs brave the waters. Here it is, several generations later and all the pigs on Big Major Cay can swim. He said, that's what it made it so easy for me to get this picture is because they've just been trained that any time a boat comes near shore, they assume they're going to get fed. They think it's the guy from the restaurant. He said, I boated up to this island and these pigs swam out to my boat.   I didn't even have to get out of the boat. I just leaned over and stuck my camera in the water. Boom. Easiest picture I ever took. Of course, at that point, I got my credit card out and I'm like, okay. We'll take it. Why was that? Two minutes earlier, that picture was worth nothing to me. It was barely worth the paper that it was printed on, but after hearing that short, two-minute story, all of the sudden, I had to have that picture. It was literally worth more money to me now because I wasn't just buying a picture. I was buying a story that had a picture with it. Every time somebody comes to my house and goes to the bathroom, I can tell them that story, and I like telling the story. It's this history lesson and geography lesson and animal psychology lesson all rolled into one. That's an example of a sales story as opposed to a sales pitch, because what that guy could have done is said, look, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, here are the three reasons why you need to buy this picture. First of all, it's the right size to fit in your bathroom. Second of all, it's got the right color palette to match your towels and the pain on the walls. And third, it's in the right price range that your wife already told me. So, don’t you need to just buy this right now? That's a sales pitch. They're logical, rational reasons why I should buy it, but the story is very different. It was far more effective at getting me to buy that picture. Kelly Coughlin: That's a great story. I love that one. Why do you think stories are so effective? Paul Smith: Probably my top three reasons are, first of all, this storytelling speaks to the part of the brain where decisions are actually made. There's been a number of studies lately that show that human beings make subconscious emotional, sometimes irrational decisions in one place in their brain. Then, they rationalize those decisions a few nanoseconds later in the logical conscious part of the brain. We think that we're making these rational, logical decisions, but the truth is, we're really making emotional subconscious decisions a few nanoseconds earlier. The second one is, it literally makes things easier to remember. Right now, I'm giving you a list of three things. My guess is that by this time tomorrow, you and most of your audience members are not going to remember these three things. I'm telling you right now. And it's okay. I'm not going to be insulted.   My guess is also that by this time tomorrow, you and everybody listening to this will remember the story of pig island. A week from now and a month from now and even a year from now, most of you listening to this will be able to tell the story of pig island and get most of the facts right, but there is nobody that a year from now is going to remember this list of three things that I'm giving you right now. It's just a list of three things. Storytelling literally makes things easier to remember. I guess the last reason I'd give you is that stories inspire. Slides don’t. When’s the last time you heard somebody say, wow, you'll never believe the Power Point presentation I just saw? Nobody says that. But they will say that about a great story. I think that's what you want your communication to have that kind of an impact on people. Kelly Coughlin: What makes a great story from simply a good or average one? Or do we need great stories? Paul Smith: The worst time to tell a story is when you don’t have a good story to tell. In fact, I'd even say, if you don’t have a great story to tell, don’t tell a story at all. What makes the difference between a great story and just an average story, I think, is three things. This could be any story. A movie, a novel that you'd read. Any kind of storytelling really centers around having a hero you care about, a villain you're afraid of, and an epic battle between them. Think Star Wars. You've got your Luke Skywalker, you've got your Darth Vader, and you've got this epic battle between them. That's what great storytelling is at its core. I admit that sounds rather Hollywood. If you translate that into business relevant language, what that means is, a relatable hero, a main character your audience can relate to. A relevant challenge. So, the villain becomes a relevant challenge, which could be a business situation. It doesn't have to be a human being they're fighting with. Then, that epic battle just becomes an honest struggle. You need to see your main character struggling with this challenge that they're faced with. If there's no real struggle, it's just not an interesting story. I've got to add one thing to that since it's a business story and that is, there's got be a worthy lesson or an actionable recommendation that comes out of it. Or you've just entertained people. Those are the four things, I guess. A relatable hero, a relevant challenge, an honest struggle, and a worthy lesson at the end. Kelly Coughlin: I recall in your book you said there is, I think, about 20 or 25 stories that every sales person should have in his or her repertoire. Tell us about that. Paul Smith: As I mentioned earlier, what I found when I was interviewing people for this book and by the way, I interviewed professional sales people and professional buyers at over 50 different companies just for this last book. I was looking for where in the whole sales process are great sales people telling stories. Real stories like I'm talking about stories. I was surprised to find out it was throughout the entire sales process all the way from introducing yourself to the buyer to preparing for the sales call. Even stories they told themselves prior to the call just to motivate themselves for the sales call, then to building rapport with the buyer, making the actual sales pitch, handling objections in the call, closing the sale. That never occurred to me that somebody would tell a story to actually make the final closing of the sale. I thought that would be a very fact-based, handshaking type moment. Even managing customer relationships after the sale. In those one, two, three, four, five, six, seven phases of the sales process, there's three or four specific types of stories that I found great sales people using in each of those phases. That's what the first third of the book does. It just documents, here are the seven phases and the 25 stories that you probably need to have at your disposal. It's throughout that entire process. Kelly Coughlin: You'd probably agree that the stories have to be authentic, real stories. Paul Smith: Yes, stories definitely need to be genuine and authentic. Actually, that's one of the things that most stories are. Just telling a story in general, especially if it's a story about yourself, is going to almost always come across as genuine because, I was there. I'm telling you something that actually happened to me as opposed to, I'm reading you a script that my marketing department told me to read over the phone to you. That is going to come away not genuine. In fact, this is where I think I learned more from the professional buyers, professional procurement managers than I did sales people. One of the questions I asked them was, what is it that makes a sales pitch sound like a sales pitch? They had a lot of really interesting answers to that. In fact, most of them described how it made them feel when they could tell that they sales pitch had officially started. They said, basically, it just made me want to throw up. One of them said it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I would get very defensive. I just thought, oh, God. It's started.     It's not a feeling they want to have, and it's not a feeling you want them to have that they can tell exactly when your sales pitch has started. It turns out, and I asked them, what is it that makes you know that the sales pitch has started? Most of them said when the tone of the conversation changes from something that sounds conversational and extemporaneous to something that sounds memorized and scripted. That's when I know the sales pitch has started. If you don’t want your sales pitch to sound like a sales pitch, don’t tell it to people in a fashion that sounds memorized. The best way to make sure that it doesn't sound memorized is quite frankly, don’t memorize it. Don’t memorize every word of your sales story or your sales pitch. Memorize the general ideas and the general flow of it and then every time you tell it, it’ll be slightly unique because you're going to choose different words to craft your sentences. Now, they'll mean the same thing, but it will sound like it's the first time you've ever told that particular story before, because it will be the first time that you've ever told that precise story because you're having to make a little bit of it up as you go along. Or at least make up the words that you use because you didn't memorize word for word. Kelly Coughlin: Yeah. Fair enough, but I think you would agree that it's good to at least memorialize the script so that you're not wasting words. I look at it like writing business poetry. Try to get big ideas in small words. In today’s environment where you've the attention span has probably been cut by 70% in this whole culture, you don’t have much time. So, don’t be rambling on with the big, long sales pitch. Fine-tune it, work it, use precise, concise words. Otherwise, you're going to lose them. Paul Smith: Yeah, I agree. That's just a little different than memorize the whole—I think you said memorialize, and I think that's a good word for it. You're memorizing the major concepts and the order in which you're going to deliver them. You've probably thought through some of the key words that are going to help you deliver it, but that's different than memorizing a script. If you do that, you're going to deliver a memorized script. Then, it won't sound authentic. Kelly Coughlin: How long do you think the sales story should be? Paul Smith: Of all the sales stories that I documented in the book, the average length was about 300 words, which was about two minutes to tell. They ranged from as short as 50 or 60 words, which is like 30 seconds, to as long as three and a half minutes, maybe four minutes. The average was about two minutes. I found that interesting because in my first book Lead with a Story, which about storytelling for leadership purposes, the stories were twice that long. Four minutes on average. I think that makes sense, because leadership stories oftentimes, you're telling it to the people that report to you. People will listen to the boss longer than they'll listen to a sales person. They're your boss. You have to listen to them and show some respect and deference and all that. When a sales person is telling a story, they're telling it to the buyer. The buyer is the boss. Your time is cut down. We're not talking about five or 10 or 20 minute stories. We're talking about two-minute stories that you might use to punctuate a 15-minute sales call. They're very short things. Kelly Coughlin: Let's talk about story structure. I've always been schooled in this presentation formula of, tell them what you're going to tell them. You tell them, and then you tell them what you just told them. Then, you have the journalist’s approach where you give the meat first, the lead, I think they call it at the very beginning. You do that to get their attention or the reader won't ever get past to the remainder of the piece. Now, I think you recommend a bit of a modified approach to this where you focus on context, action, result. Then, you also then talk about seven steps including the hook for business. For business and banking pitches, what structure would you recommend? Paul Smith: Those other two that you mentioned, the tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them what you told them, then the journalist one, those are good structures but not for storytelling. The first one is the one that you learned in the third grade, and it's the structure of a presentation. If you're going to stand up and give an oral presentation about the book you just read, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them. It's introduction, body, conclusion. That's not a story. That's a presentation. That's a speech. That's the structure of a speech. The journalist one is not a structure for stories, either. It's a structure for a newspaper article. I know some people say it's a newspaper story, but it's not. It's a newspaper article. It's not a story unless it really is a story about something that happened to somebody. They have to write in that inverted pyramid, and for lots of good reasons that we probably don’t have to go into today. That's not the structure of a story, either. Real storytelling structure is the structure that you would use when you're writing a novel or a screenplay for a movie or something like that.   Those are real stories. People like that follow very complicated, very complex story structures like Joseph Campbell’s Heroes Journey story structure, which is 17 steps long. I don’t recommend using that simply because it's too long to use for a two-minute story. What I recommend is a four-step process. It's context, challenge, conflict, and resolution. That's the main body of the story. Now, what I've found is that people need a little bit more help than that. How do I get into the story? Then, how do I get out of the story and do some business with the story? I've added the hook at the beginning, which is how you get your audience to pay attention and listen to your story. Then, when you're done, the lesson that you learned and the recommended action are two extra steps after the story is told. The main body of the story is just this context, challenge, conflict, and resolution. Probably the best way to think about it, Kelly, is not in terms of these steps, but in terms of the questions that your story answers.   In fact, there are eight questions your story’s got to answer. I'm just going to give you all eight of them right now. This is the order in which it should answer them. Number one, why should I listen to this story? That's the hook. If you can't answer that question, then they might not listen to you story. Then, you get into the main body. It's, where and when did the story take place? Who’s the hero and what did they want? What was the problem or opportunity they ran into? What did they do about it? And how did it turn out in the end? That's the first six. Now, you're done with the story, technically. The remaining two questions are, what did you learn from that story? And what do you think I should do now? That's your opportunity to make a recommendation. If your story answers those eight questions in that order, you've got the story structure right. It doesn't matter if you call the first part the context, the challenge, the conflict. That's less relevant than getting those questions answered and in that order.   Every time he or she tells the story, that's the structure that it should be in. If he or she is actually telling a story, if what they're doing at that moment is, I just want to tell you a little bit about my bank. There are three reasons why we're different than our competitors across the street. Let me tell you about those three things. He's not telling a story. He's giving you a list of reasons why they're different, and that's fine. You need those things. You don’t need a context, a challenge, a conflict, and a resolution if you're going to give somebody a list. But if you're going to tell them a story about one of your bank customers who came in and said, look, I used to bank across the street and I've had it with them. I can't stand it anymore. Let me tell you what happened. I went there and I tried to open up a checking account. I had this problem and then in finally got it resolved. I went back and then I needed to get a car loan. They made me fill out 500 sheets of paper, and it was ridiculous. Then, they told me I wasn't qualified because of some silly thing that was wrong on their part. Now, you're telling a story. That story needs a context, a challenge, a conflict, and a resolution if you're going to do it well. If you're just going to ramble on, you can say whatever you want. If you want an effective story, you'll answer those eight questions in that order. The conflict is simply the struggle that the main character is having achieving their goal. Kelly Coughlin: In the banking world, you can pick a new customer that you've got because they had a bad experience with a competitor. You can tell that story around how you were able to get this customer and solve their problems because the competitor had created these problems. That's the conflict part. Or, a customer that you took care of as a sample case study on, here's how we take care of our customers on a recurring basis. There's no real conflict with that, right? Paul Smith: What you're describing is one of the type of the 25 stories. It's a customer success story. It's story number 14, by the way, in the book. There's still conflict in a customer success story because the customer has to have a problem that needs to be solved. They struggle with that problem, and the solution they decide to settle on is hiring you. The other type of story you just mentioned is called a problem story. That's story number thirteen. It's a customer having all these problems but not having a good solution. Hopefully, that's with one of your competitors and not with you. The customer success story is hopefully when they come to you, they have a better experience. Those are two of the 25 types of stories, but your banker, your hypothetical banker we're talking about might tell a story that's story number 10, which is the story of the founding of their company. Who founded this community bank? And why did they found it?   What made them quit their day job? Because nobody ever quit their day job for a boring reason. It's always because they're fed up with the boss. They hate their job. They hate the industry they're in, whatever. I'm going to go become a restaurant owner. I've always had a passion for cooking or whatever. It kills me that all these farmers around here can never get loans at the big city banks. My dad was a farmer and his dad was a farmer. I'm going to go start a local bank. That can be a fabulously important story for a banker to have in their repertoire is their founding story, because that tells you a lot about the bank. Why was it started? That will have the same structure. A context, a challenge, a conflict, and a resolution. The main character is going to be the founder of the bank. That's three of the 25 types of stories, but they all follow the same structure. Kelly Coughlin: Give us the 25 story categories so that we've got a good feel for those if you can. Paul Smith: I'll mention a few of them, and I'll send you a list and you can put that on your website. The seven categories are the ones I mentioned earlier. Introducing yourself, that's where you'll tell a story about what you do for a living in an interesting way as opposed to just reading your job description. You tell a short story about somebody that you've helped and how you helped them. Then, in the building rapport part, that's where you tell a story about the founding of the company is an example of one of them that would be in that building rapport. Or you might tell a story about yourself, why you decided to do what you do for a living. Why did you decide to be the CEO of a bank? What attracted you to banking? That’ll tell somebody some important about you. In the main sales pitch itself, we've talked about two of those types already. The explaining the problem story and the customer success story. There's other types there, as well. The pig island story is an example of a value-adding story. That's a story where the story actually adds value to the product that you're selling. I've actually got an example from a bank there on that one that I can tell you shortly if you're interested. The next phase is handling objections. Somebody always says, oh yeah, I like what you're selling, but the price is too high or I don’t like your quality or you're too far away or whatever.   So, stories to help resolve those objections. Sometimes even before they're brought up with a story about somebody else who had the same objections, and it turned out not to be a problem after all. You just thought that was going to be a problem, and it turned out not. Then, in closing the sale, there are stories that will help you create a sense of urgency on the part of the buyer to become my customer now instead of waiting six months. That can help you close the sale. An example of one in the last phase which is managing customer relationships is a loyalty building story. This would be stories that you tell your customers about other customers of yourself who love you and why they love you. Let me tell you what we did for this customer that lives six blocks away from here, and what we did for her. Let me tell me what we did for this other guy that lives in the next county but he drives all the way to our bank because we do this for him that nobody else does. The reason you're telling those stories about other happy, loyal customers is because you want this customer to be a happy, loyal customer and know, wow. I'm never leaving this bank. If you do all that for other people, you'll probably do that for me when it's my turn to need that kind of thing. Those are examples of the 25. Kelly Coughlin: I want to know how people can find out more about you and your work and get in touch with you. Is there anything that I missed that you feel needs to be communicated? Paul Smith: No, that's good. I think we're going to do the second podcast, and I can share one or two of those banking stories then. For now, I guess folks can find me, the easiest way is on my website, which is LeadWithAStory.com, which is the name of my first book. They can find out about my books and the coaching and training I do on storytelling for leaders and sales folks. Kelly Coughlin: Paul, thank you very much. That's terrific. I enjoyed talking to you. Then, we'll continue with part two of this. Thanks. Announcer: We want to thank you for listening to the syndicated audio program, BankBosun.com The audio content is produced and syndicated by Seth Greene, Market Domination. Video content is produced by The Guildmaster Studio, Keenan Bobson Boyle. The voice introduction is me, Karim Kronfli. The program is hosted by Kelly Coughlin. If you like this program, please tell us. If you don’t, please tell us how we can improve it. Now, some disclaimers. Kelly is licensed with the Minnesota State Board of Accountancy as a Certified Public Accountant. The views expressed here are solely those of Kelly Coughlin and his guests in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of any other agent, principal, employer, employee, vendor or supplier.

Rev. Steve Ottley updates us on our district and how we can better serve the spiritual needs of our community.

Last week I interviewed Mario the Magician. Katie is his wife and other half. She works with Mario as a team and handles all the business and marketing aspects of their business. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s essential for your spouse to be onboard and supportive of your entrepreneurial efforts, and this week, we’re diving into that very perspective!     Show Sponsors: ManageGigs: ManageGigs helps you keep track of all of your gigs online, without having to resort to spreadsheets. Click here to check them out and sign up for your free seven day trial! Audible: For Performercast Listeners, Audible is offering a free audiobook download and a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. Click here to check it out!     Interview with Katie Marchese: Success Mantra Define your normal.     Katie’s Take on Their Business • How children change the dynamics of things, even in business. • Gives her take on how they built their business and took it full time. • Going for things 100%. • Talks about initial marketing efforts, how they’ve changed and how they look now. • Dealing with rejection. • Letting go of things that don’t work in favor of giving new things a chance. • Being diverse vs niche-ing down. • Knowing what you’re strong at and not trying to be “everything to everyone." • The stigma of children’s performers. • Connecting with both kids and adults.     Katie’s Business Responsibilities • Takes care of booking inquiries. • Running social media, scheduling posts. • Reaching out to various outlets and possible venues. • She does all she can so he can focus on his performing.     Thoughts on Social Media • Talks about how things have changed with social media and how now they’re trying to engage people in their story. Business and personal life are now connected. • People want to know “your story." • People do business with their friends and social media helps proper to know their business connections better. • People also want to feel like they’re supporting something. If they feel like they’re connecting with you on a personal level, when they do business with you they have a stronger feeling of supporting you.     Challenges & Blessings of Working with Spouse in Business • Hard to turn things off when the work day is “done." • Not having specific business hours. • Scheduling “work" conversations. • It brings them closer together because they’re working as a team. • Possibility of including their kids in the business in the future. • They try to expose the kids with the family business as much as possible while still being sensitive of their needs and desires. • Disconnecting from business at the end of the day. • Having a schedule that helps them to have routine and then unwind. • Not taking things personally. • Celebrating together. • Getting to work with someone you love.     Failure Moment Talks about a tour they planned that flopped spectacularly! Learned not to force things but to let things happen smartly and organically. Katie shares how they might go about that today.     Favorite Success Their Kickstarter campaign that got funded and raised $36,000 allowing them to do a featured length documentary telling Mario’s story which is now playing at film festivals. Talks about how they approached their Kickstarter campaign. • Reached out to local supporters. • Outreaching to people in the different communities they’re a part of. • Talks about some of the rewards they did for backers.     Biggest Professional Challenge Letting go and delegating.     Is there anything they would have done differently? Getting to the point they’re at right now faster.     Parting Advice Don’t make decisions based on what others think you should do but based on your own research and convictions.       Exclusive Content for Patreon Supporters This weeks episode is the full interview, but often times I go longer than an hour and therefore have to cut the interviews down to be an hour or less. Patron supporters get access to the full uncut versions of these interviews and often times, a few days before the official episode is released. If this interests you, please consider supporting me on Patreon.     Recommended books and resources: Note: Many of the links in this section are affiliate links, meaning we earn a small portion of any sales. If you're enjoying our podcast and decide to purchase one of the recommended resources or books, please consider using our affiliate links to help support the work we're doing here at the Successful Performercast. Thanks!     Resources: Her iPhone in general. She’s able to do business from her phone.     Books: The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne    Where can we find Katie and Mario? MarioTheMagician.com Building Magic Kickstarter BuildingMagicDoc.com Facebook | Twitter @mariomagician | Instagram | Youtube

Outreaching with an Eternal PerspectiveJohn 6:26-29 26Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." 28Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" 29Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."