Podcasts about so ian

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:00:03):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.Speaker 2 (00:00:41):What's going on. I am excited for this episode. We've got someone that's been a long time coming with us on the show today. I've seen him speak probably three, four times. Now he's been on stages all across America and speaking of America, he loves America. He's got add a flag in the background here. So love that about our guests today. We've got, uh, Ian went on the show, Ian. Thanks for coming on with us.Speaker 3 (00:01:05):Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me, dude. Appreciate it. Glad we can make it happen. Finally, you chasing me around long enough.Speaker 2 (00:01:11):I know sometimes I got to bug people, but it gets, we're used to that knocking doors. Right. So, Hey, how you doing man persistence? Well, yeah, I know it's an honor to finally have you on. And um, I obviously heard you speak last at the door to door Fest event and I was in Dallas, um, a couple months ago now I think. And uh, so yeah, Ian, you do quite a bit of speaking now, is that right? Speak at a lot of sales conferences and stuff like that?Speaker 3 (00:01:37):Yeah, I mean, I do. I do, uh, you know, anytime, anytime I can, anytime I'm invited. So it's been, it's been cool. I've, I've had the opportunity to speak in it quite a few in the last, uh, in the recent months. So yeah, man, it's been, it's been, it's been a fun time. I love, I love speaking, so I love being able to teach in that environment. So it's been cool.Speaker 2 (00:01:56):Yeah, no, it's been awesome to hear for me. I think I first heard you probably door to door con I don't know, probably like four years ago now, so been a little bit. Um, but yeah, I know you've spoken all over and for, for our listeners that don't know Ian, he is a sales trainer and marketing expert. Um, I mean top door, uh, door to door for like dish satellite for years and years. And now I correct me if I'm wrong, Ian, but now mostly just consulting in them, building up your, uh, Patriot brands in speaking at events, stuff like that, right?Speaker 3 (00:02:31):Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I was with, uh, I was with dish one or now they're known as caliber for my entire career in door to door, um, which I started in 2009 and I ended just barely like maybe, maybe a year ago, almost so, you know, 10 plus years. Um, and, uh, so I, I sold for them for, you know, four or five years, and then I, I trained a little bit. Um, and then there, I just, I realized that what I was doing was, was working on a big scale. And so they actually had me come in and, and run the training program for them. So I built the training, I built the different training programs or different training, um, courses and things like that, that they used throughout the company for leadership and reps. And, uh, and then eventually I also took over all the marketing when we rebranded to caliber.Speaker 3 (00:03:19):So, um, awesome, awesome, awesome time that, you know, that time that I had at caliber has, has very much shaped who I am and made it possible for me to have the opportunities that I have say. And so, yeah, to answer your question, um, I haven't been on the doors for a long time. I haven't been in the door to door space for a little, I think, I think it's about a year, maybe a little over a year. Um, and now I own my own clothing brands or my own brand in general, we do a lot of different things, um, official Patriot gear. And then, like you said, I, I can solve for marketing and sales on the side for individuals and businesses. So, yeah. Nice.Speaker 2 (00:03:58):Yeah. And if you're not following Ian on social media, we definitely would recommend it. Um, he's one of the most entertaining guys. I would say that I follow on social media. Love it when you get in a, you know, political debates and stuff like that. So appreciate your fights. Give me some good entertainment.Speaker 3 (00:04:15):If you do follow me on social media, be ready for it. It's very political and just know this. We may disagree on things and that's okay. Um, I welcome everybody. If you have a disagreement or something like that, reach out to me, let's talk about it. Like those are the conversations that I want to have with people. And so rather than just following, see something, you don't like an unfollow, like that's what we need more in the world now is people to understand and talk and, you know, figure out because I think at the end of the day, we all have a lot more in common than we think we do, but we're just so we're so reactionary and we're so triggered and we're so ready to just, oh, that person doesn't agree with me. And so, you know, cut them off. And it's like, that's, that's the reason why right now I believe that we're closer to being the divided states of America than we ever have been. And we need to be the United States. So if you follow me, yes, it's very political. If you may not agree with everything, but please reach out and I'd love to have the conversation. And at the end of the day, like we can agree to disagree or we can not agree at all. And trust me when I tell you we can still exist, harm me like it's possible.Speaker 2 (00:05:17):Yeah, no, I love that. And that's what I love about you. You're not afraid to open the can of worms and actually have discussions because I think that's the big problem. That's why we're so divided. As people don't want to talk about it. People just, you know, get all off on following, you know, don't want to talk about it instead of having healthy discussions. So, um, I know definitely important. Yeah. We just, I just got back from a family reunion. Matter of fact. And um, our family union theme was a unity is pretty funny because, you know, in my, in my family, a lot of my extended family have a lot of different political beliefs and stuff like that. So we kind of had some burned, some bridges, but yeah, it was nice getting everyone together and you know, what you got to do.Speaker 2 (00:05:58):Yeah. It's important. So yeah, follow lean for that. Um, he loves, you know, talking about the hard topics too, and it's, um, getting political and love that about him. So Ian, we're going to get into a couple of things. The reason why I wanted to bring you on so bad is because I heard you speak at door to door Fest. And I know you've never, I know you haven't specifically like sold solar, obviously done a ton of door to door, but he spoke to all the solar guys at Door to Door Fest in Dallas and talked about the buyer types, which I thought is super applicable. Probably even more so in solar than I think probably any other door to door type thing. Just because solar, as you probably know, Ian, we're like, you know, meeting in homes, it's more of like a long drawn out sell than just like, you know, right at the door like you're doing in satellite and a lot of these other other industries.Speaker 2 (00:06:48):So I think even more so in this industry, it's important to recognize your buyer types recognize, um, what's making people tick and just be able to have that advantage. Cause that's, what's, it's coming too. People heard about soar at this point. People have been through the spill and heard the pitch and everything. So it's important to give yourself as many tools as possible. And I think recognizing the buyer types is a huge thing. So yeah. I want to talk about that a little bit, but I guess before we get into that, do you want to give us the quick rundown, I guess, of how you got into door to door and how that all started in?Speaker 3 (00:07:24):Um, yeah, sure. So, like I said, I, I was with dish one since 2009. I actually, I got recruited out of the freaking school gym college gym by my, by my good friend, Teagan Judd. Um, which is funny. Cause when he recruited me, it was the, like, it was the textbook recruit. It was his first year and he recruited me textbook recruit like, Hey, do I know you from somewhere? And of course I had no idea what was going on and I was completely oblivious. And so just so you guys know the textbook stuff does work like it does. And uh, anyway, you just, do I know you from somewhere? No, I don't think so. Did you do alarms? No. I never did alarms. Have you ever knocked doors? No. Well, I have an opportunity. I want to talk to you about, you know, if it doesn't, if it's not something that suits you, whatever, like no big deal, but would you mind waiting?Speaker 3 (00:08:06):I'm about to get off my shift and dude, that was, that was it like from then on 2009 until freaking 2020, you know? So it does work. Um, and the, you know, the, the simple things that you think don't work actually could, could make the biggest difference. The other thing too, this is kind of off topic and you're gonna, you're going to see me do this a lot. Cause I have just like a lot of you guys, I have literally the worst ADHD all time, but let me just tell you this guys. One thing that I feel like in the door industry, a lot of people forget the whole time I was there. I feel like no one really focused on the fourth quarter. And what I mean by the fourth quarter is you would be blown away if you knew how many of the, the biggest ballers in the top performers that I knew in the industry that I still know in the industry that are still there that were recruited in like April and may like or not April may, excuse me, March and April, March and April.Speaker 3 (00:09:01):Right? Especially April though, like I was recruited in April and all of my friends who are still in the industry that are absolute monsters on the doors were recruited in April. And it makes sense because, you know, in my case it was different. Cause I just didn't know anything. And it just happened to be the luck of the draw. But like these other guys, if you talk to them, they'll say I had, I had looked through all my other options. I've looked at different companies. I've been pitched by a bunch of different companies and I was trying to decide what to do and, and it was go time and I knew I was going to go sell. Right. But I just didn't know with who. And so guys, don't, don't like, don't discredit the idea that, that you can recruit somebody in the fourth quarter or like I said in March or even April.Speaker 3 (00:09:45):Um, and that they won't be one of your best reps you've ever had because they've already vetted the other companies. And they've already kind of like gotten to the point where if they jump on, if they jump in the ship with you, then they're solid. Like that's, it, they've already looked at the other ideas. They've already looked at the other options or whatever. So anyway, that's a ramp, but I just think it's super important because a lot of, I feel like a lot of people forget that and very, very few focus on recruiting in those months. Yeah. No, just from my experience, I've seen some of the best reps come out of those months.Speaker 2 (00:10:18):Yeah, no, I agree. A hundred percent, especially in solar because solar we're doing this year round, so we're getting recruits like Midsummer guys from pest control and all that that were selling pest control their industries.Speaker 3 (00:10:32):But anyway, so yeah, I got recruited. I sold for, I sold for, uh, four years just selling and um, and uh, I did really, really well. And then my fifth year I managed an office. And then after that, I just, I kinda got to a point where I realized, you know, Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm worth way more than just selling 300 accounts in a summer, which by the way back then when the ton, you know, I can teach, I can teach reps how to sell. I just, I realized that training was actually my passion in teaching because Teagan always empowered me to do correlations and train guys and things like that. And so I realized that was really my passion. And even though I was really, really good on the doors, it just, it wasn't my passion. And so I basically got to the point where I said, Hey, I'm going to figure out a way to make it so that I can do what I actually love doing and stay in the industry because this is, you know, like you guys know this is an opportunity unlike any other.Speaker 3 (00:11:24):And it opens a door to a life that people our age and your age dream of. And uh, and don't think it's real. Right. Anyway. So, so I did, I basically said, okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to train. And um, I train the office for a little bit and then I trained a couple more offices and I, I started to realize that, Hey, this is actually, you know, we're, we're seeing some insane results with these guys. So I actually went to the, um, to the, the COO at the time for one of the, one of the owners, basically one of the, one of the Hammond brothers. And I said, it was Jeremy. I said, Hey, I want to run the training program. You know, I want to be, I want to be an executive. I want to, I want to actually build the training program and I want to roll it out.Speaker 3 (00:12:04):Company-wide and at the time there was nothing, there was, there was no training program. Like there was no training team or anything like that. Right. Like it was just there, just there wasn't a position for that. Yeah. And he told me, um, he told me, yeah, there's, I mean, we don't have a position like that. And so we're not going to just create it, but if you go out and prove that this works, like, it won't even be a matter of if it'll just be how and when. Right. And I said, okay, challenge accepted. So I, I took off and, uh, for that summer I traveled the nation and I trained all of Teagan's offices first and I kept a binder and I kept track of all the reps that I was training personally, on the doors I kept, I kept track of all the offices.Speaker 3 (00:12:50):So basically what I would do is I would say, okay, you know, I got here on this day, 30 days prior to this day, this is what the results look like for both the individuals and the office. Right. And then I would track those results. 30 days after I left. And every single time it was like double, triple, quadruple the amount of sales, the better metrics, um, for, for both individuals and for the entire office. And so I did that. And then all of a sudden, the other regionals, because Teagan was a regional at the time, um, the other regional started hearing about what was going on. And they were like, Hey, come to my office, come to my office. And so after, after, you know, a few office visits, all of a sudden now I was visiting almost every office in the company doing the exact same thing.Speaker 3 (00:13:31):And I'll tell you this though. Like, it didn't come without sacrifice. And I think a lot of people forget this because you know, they look at me and they're like, I'm kind of an anomaly in the door to door industry because I didn't have a network. I didn't bring on a lot of recruits, but I was able to reach executive level without doing any of that. And so it's kind of like, I feel like a lot of people look at it and they're like, oh, he just kind of like, you know, he's favored or whatever. And he just kind of out there, but they don't realize that that year that I decided to prove and add the value that I knew I needed to in order to negotiate the, the position and the, and the career that I wanted. I overdrafted my bank account seven times.Speaker 3 (00:14:08):Wow. And any of you that are in door to door sales right now, you know, that overdraft, if you're, if you're doing it the right way, right. If you're, if you're doing it the right way and you're not spending your money stupidly, and you're actually like, you know, doing well, then you know, that overdrafting, your bank account is like, what? That doesn't happen. Are you kidding me? Right. And, uh, I did it seven times because, because I was living, basically I had a, my car, I put almost 80,000 miles on my car that summer. And, um, I was, I was giving all the sales away because I was all I was doing was shadowing guys. That's it? Cause, cause I could knock and I could sell, but like they didn't, they didn't learn that way. So I was just shadowing guys. And so I was basically living off of like a few sales here and there.Speaker 3 (00:14:57):But the majority of it, I was giving the money away to the reps because I was just shadowing them the whole time. Right. But I could really, really get them to, to, to perform the way I need. I knew I needed to. Wow. Anyway, so towards the end of the summer, I, uh, so the other thing I started to do was I started to do surveys. So I would survey the leadership and the reps and I would, I created these like 10 questions. I still have the binder somewhere. I created these 10 questions surveys, and I would have an answer it based on like, whether I was knocking with them or whether I was just teaching their office or whatever, if they were a leader, if their rep, and then I could take those surveys and I slipped, I slipped them under the door to, to Jeremy and, and actually at the time to do the vice president of dish itself because we were, we were partnered with dish directly.Speaker 3 (00:15:44):And so we worked directly with them. So I was literally emailing them these surveys and, uh, and I just kept sending them all summer long. And finally, at the end of the summer, or towards the end of the summer, it was probably about a month. It was probably in like mid July. I want to say, um, Jeremy reached out and said, okay man, you did it come in. Nice. And, uh, he had heard from Amir, the VP of dish who, who also saw the results and wanted to talk about it and everything. And, and, uh, they invited me in and they said, create the pitch deck and tell us what you're going to do. And I did. And, um, that was it from that day on, I, I, at the time I joined the training team and I, I, uh, I created all the content.Speaker 3 (00:16:23):I built the program from the ground up that they were using as far as how to teach reps, how to sell, whether they're are rookie or veteran. And then that just kind of evolved over the next couple of years or few years into me running the training program itself and, you know, doing all the live trainings and things like that. Um, and then, and then when they rebranded to caliber, um, I have always been very active on social media and I've always had kind of a creative bone and they knew that. And so, um, I actually ended up taking over the marketing as well when we ran into caliber. So I had a marketing team and I ran the marketing for a couple of years as well. So I was running all the training and all the marketing for a few years for caliber. And, um, yeah, dude, like I said, that's, you know, those years or those years have given me the mindset and the abilities and the skills I believe to do what I do today. And so I'm forever grateful and that's why I have, that's why I have a soft spot for the daughter ministry and I always will.Speaker 2 (00:17:21):Yeah. Wow. That's cool. I didn't know that story. That's powerful. And what I love about that is you went out and took the initiative and, you know, actually they created the training training programs. Cause I know tons of guys in the industry, it's like, they're just crossing their fingers, waiting for that opportunity to go on and I don't know, train or get told, okay, you're doing good. We're going to promote you to, I don't know, be a manager or whatever, but I think the best guys and the guys that are growing the quickest are the guys like you that went out and just was like, can I run this meeting? Can I do the training? Can I do the correlation? Can I go out to this team, train them? And that's actually how I first got into like my first management position. Do I, wasn't just going to wait around for them to be like, Hey, you're doing pretty good. Do you want to like, come be an assistant manager? I mean, I had to go and be like, Hey, can I run this training? Can I actually do a training this weekend? Or can I go out with these reps? And uh, you know, leaders recognize that. And I think that's how guys are going to get promoted and we'll get into those positions.Speaker 3 (00:18:20):Well, I think one of the most important principles that I've ever been taught and I've ever learned in, in one that I always try to teach everybody else is what you're saying. It's like too many people try to negotiate before they add value in this world in general, not only in the door to industry, but just in general, people always try to negotiate before they add value. And that's not how it goes. You add value and then you negotiate and you add so much value that the negotiation is just easy. Right. And if you think about it, that's exactly what sales is all about. It's adding enough value so that when it comes time to close, it's just like, duh, of course. Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah. So true.Speaker 2 (00:18:59):Yeah. And you, I mean, I guess you're the perfect example. I mean, you were overdrafting your bank account around it around, but in tons of miles on the car and no guarantee of anything. So yeah, that's a great example of what you're doing. Um, what was like the number before it gets to the next topic? What was like the number one thing would you say in that was like helping your teams out? Was there one thing that was like helping them double ourselves and all that? Or was it just going out and shadowing or what was like the general thing that helped your team so much? You think?Speaker 3 (00:19:29):Um, that's a great question. As far as the correlation and like the trainings go, um, the correlations themselves, I feel like 100%, it all came down to belief and energy. Um, as much I had so much belief in so much confidence in confidence in the product that we sold, like literally ask anybody what Ian thought about dish network and they will tell you, like, he thought it was godsend. Like it was, they they'll say he thought it was the greatest product on the planet and the truth. The truth is I did because I, I learned to believe in it so strongly that literally no one could tell me that there was anything better than it. And, and that confidence in that belief, in that product gave me a power. I feel like that most people didn't have. So, and, and I was able to project that onto other reps and other managers when I was in front of them training and teaching, because they could feel that confidence themselves.Speaker 3 (00:20:22):Right. So they didn't have it. It was like, how do I get that? Um, and then the energy, like this is, this is, you know, this is textbook stuff for, for correlation, but it was the energy that I was able to bring every time, because I was so excited about what I was doing because I love training. And I love teaching. I, I was, I was just always so excited and it, it was never, it was never like a downer, a negative moment when I was teaching and training people. And they could feel that they could, that energy was contagious. Right. I always tell managers, your first sale of the day is when you cross the threshold of your correlation room, like correlation is your first sale of the day, your reps, or the first sale of the day for you. And if you miss that sale, I promise you the rest of your day is going to be crap.Speaker 3 (00:21:03):And so is there, so, you know, it's, it's the, it was the intentional correlations and the energy. I feel like that made the difference for, for the office in general. And then for the reps, um, obviously the belief in the energy was, was big thing, right. But I would say the biggest thing with, with training reps on the doors was, um, was really teaching them not only how to be efficient and how to like prospect the right way, right? Like how to, how to find the right people and how to not waste time, but also allowing them to fail in front of me and then taking the time afterwards to tell them exactly why they failed a lot of trainers out there will train a rep and they won't let a sale go like in their mind, they're like, dude, I could save this so easy and they'll just jump in and they'll save the sale.Speaker 3 (00:21:55):And it's my belief. It's my opinion that the rep doesn't learn nearly as much if they, as if they'd lost the sale and then you take them to the side afterwards and say, Hey, do you know why you lost that sale? Well, no, not really. Or they might even say, yeah, I think it's this. And it's like, that is such a good teaching opportunity to say X, Y, and Z are the reasons why that sale was lost. And if we would have just done this, this and this, we would have saved that sale. And what's interesting to me is the reps always say, well, why didn't you save a sale dude? And it's like, because then what would you have learned? Right? Like, would you really learn anything from that? And maybe, but most of the time they're like, well, no, because when you get to a point where I was, especially if I'm, especially, if it's like a rookie that shadowing me, I mean to them and it's like, you know, it, it just looks easy, right?Speaker 3 (00:22:47):To them. It doesn't make sense at all. And to them, I can't tell you how many times I would always get people to say, Ian, how come you get all the lay downs? Right. Why, why is it that you get, why is it that all the lay downs that you get all the lay downs in the area? And it's like, what are you talking about? Well, I haven't, I haven't gotten anybody. That's, that's been that easy in my area and I'll be like, okay, let's go knock somewhere else. And then same exact thing, more lay downs. Right. Then I always told them the same thing. There's no such thing as a lay down, you create a lay down by, by doing it the right way and adding enough value. Right. That's so powerful. Um, so yeah, that's, I feel like that was the biggest thing was just giving them an actual learning experience by allowing them to fail and see that failure. Okay. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:23:29):Awesome. So many, so many nuggets in there and yeah, but I love that belief in energy. I mean, that's super powerful. I was actually just listening to a training this morning. It's dude's name Alex or Mossi. I don't know if you've heard of them, but he does. He does consulting for gym companies. He has a hundred million dollar company and someone asked him, what's like the number one secret and training your reps. He said the exact same thing. He was just the belief and energy is as, is his new reps, outsells, experienced ones all the time, because they have more belief and energy in the product in the beginning. So, yeah, I think that's a huge secret and guys forget about after remind myself all the time, because I've been out here doing solar for five years, but we get new guys all the time that just came from alarms or something.Speaker 2 (00:24:13):And they're like super stoked about solar. Like no way we're saving people money. We don't have to charge them anything extra than what they're paying already. And they're so excited about it. They go out and hustle eight hours a day. And um, some of these guys come out and sell circles around me just because I forget how good of a product we have in solar. Um, oops. Yep. Um, so yeah, I think that's super important. And then, I mean, a lot of other stuff you mentioned there, but just being efficient and um, yeah. I mean the leaders, I think that's a big problem though. Just in general is so many like door to door leaders are just focused on, um, you know, like the money and like you were saying, just them making money, not going out and shadowing reps. So is that something that you're big on too, is just training your leaders to actually go out and like shadow the reps and things like that? No,Speaker 3 (00:24:59):No, because here's the thing too. I don't, I'm not about giving sales away either. I mean, that's the point, right? Like when I say, when I like, I don't, I don't just give sales away either because then they don't learn anything either. Right? Like that, it's the same exact thing. If I'm just giving sales away, then all that's doing is teaching them to be, you know? Yeah. I don't know. It's just, I'm not about that. I'm not about like people getting anything for nothing, right. For not putting any effort in, so no, not that's not at all what I'm saying, but, and, and those leaders when they're, when they're training and when they're selling day shift, for sure take the sales that they make. Right. No question about it. But all I'm saying is that there's power to shadowing the rep and allowing them to fail and not saving the sale.Speaker 3 (00:25:44):And then using that opportunity to actually teach them why and what they could have done differently. What we always did at caliber was we did a three, a three tier or a three-step system, I guess, is when we took a rep on the doors. We shadowed them or, sorry, we knocked and we got a sale and then we shadowed them and we help them get a sale. And then we shadow them and we don't say anything and they get the sale on their own. I like that. Oh, if the sale help get the sale and then they get the sale by themselves. Right. And that was kind of the, and obviously it's never perfect and it never works out perfectly and there's different situations and things like that. But like that was the ideal situation. Um, but no, I don't think you should give sales away ever. I think the rep should always have to work for that sale. Um, but it's finding that fine finding that balance right. Of you're a leader. And so you make more money than they do, so allow them to have that opportunity, but don't just give it to them, you know? Right. Okay.Speaker 2 (00:26:45):No, yeah. I love that. Super powerful. Um, yeah. And I think that's missing in a lot of organizations is just actually going on shadow. Cause I know when I started, I never really had the opportunity is more just them letting me shadow, you know, the leader, the manager, seeing them get herself and then just kind of off on my own. So I think that's something that's forgotten is actually the leader actually going out and shadowing and letting them struggle through SL because yeah, that's another thing that I don't think I've ever really experienced is anytime I've been shadowed, it's usually by people that want to jump in and save cells. So I don't even think about that, letting them experience the failure. And then, um, yeah, I think recording is a big thing to recording the guys and just kind of doing a play by play with them, see what, see what goes wrong.Speaker 2 (00:27:29):So yeah. Good stuff in there, Ian. Um, so yeah. I want to shift gears a little bit, talk about some of these buyer types. And I know that's like a, probably a four hour training you could give, so we're not going to go like super in depth on it, but I did want to, you know, touch on at least a few of them and hear kind of why you thought that was important. So I guess, first of all, why did you decide to give that training yet add or Fest and what's what, how did you, I guess, come across all this and think it's so important?Speaker 3 (00:27:58):So I think the reason why I did is because I, I think that the single most important thing that someone can learn being a door-to-door salesman is how to relate to every type of person. Because it's not about the product. It's not about the pitch. It's not about the service. It's literally about how you interact with customers, the best salesman, the reason why they're the best is because, I mean, I, I always say this when I do this training, but I always say, what does it really mean to be talented? And I'll get, I'll get a bunch of answers. Always get people to say, oh, it means that you can, you know, you can prospect, right? Or you're, you're very good with your clothes or, you know, whatever. But very few people ever say the, the most talented reps are the ones that can sell everyone, anything anywhere.Speaker 3 (00:28:43):And that's true. Talent to me, true talent is you can sell anyone, anything anywhere, right? No matter what the area is, no matter what the state is, no matter what the product is, no matter who it is, you're talking to, you can sell them lights out. Right? And, and what that comes down to is knowing who the person is that you're talking to because every single person has a certain way. They want to be pitched. They want to be, you know, every person wants to be, they want their handshake shook differently. They want to be presented to differently. They want to be closed differently. Every person has a certain behavior style. And when you learn to adapt your behavior style, your selling style to their buying style. Now you have the, you literally have the perfect, um, the perfect marriage when it comes to, to, to, uh, a customer client or, uh, sorry, a customer, um, sales and relationship.Speaker 3 (00:29:41):And the, you know, we always talk about how we, we teach our reps, how to mirror customers. Well, cool. But like if I'm teaching my rep to mirror a customer and that customer isn't that type of person, like for example, let's say the customer he's talking to is a much more aggressive person, right? Just by nearing that person, it doesn't mean that they're going to actually get to them. It doesn't mean that they're actually selling them the way that this person likes to buy. It just means that they're like creating a little bit more comfortability, but people don't buy based off comfort. They buy based off trust and people trust those who they feel like actually care about them and actually have their best interest in mind. And the best way to show somebody that you have their best interest in mind, and that you actually care about them as a person.Speaker 3 (00:30:29):And you actually want to put them in a better situation than you than they were in before they got you got there is by treating them the way they want to be treated, selling them the way they want to buy. And every person has a different, a different way. And I think a lot of salesmen forget that the fact that sales is, is it's all about people. It's not about the product. It's not about the sales process. It's not about the pitch. Those things are important, but if you don't know how to actually talk to people, then you will never be able to sell. I don't care who you are. You have to understand how to communicate and how to talk to people. But not just like we always talk about, oh, communication skills and persuasion and things like that. It's, it's not just that. It's, it's literally understanding how to adapt your personality to the person you're talking to so that they can relate to you on a much, much higher and much deeper level. That's what personality selling is all about. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:31:25):I totally agree. And, um, I think that's one of the reasons I liked your training so much is because, um, in the past I've just been like, okay, well I know I'm not good at selling engineers. I'm not, I know I'm not good at selling, uh, super rich people. So I'm just going to avoid those people at all costs. And I think a lot of guys get in that mindset, but then when I heard your training, I was reminded. I'm like, okay, even though that's not like my ideal person that I like to sell to, I mean, I need to get good at selling all these people. And that's, what's going to take me to the next level. I think a lot of people forget that I was just trying to double down so much on the guys I am selling to, which is great. But like, I mean, I think everyone agrees. How about you should talk to your neighbors when they're getting their solar installed? What if their neighbors and engineer, I mean, you gotta be able to sell all these different types. Well, soSpeaker 3 (00:32:11):I would actually, I would actually disagree with that. I'll actually, so what you said when I teach reps, how to sell person, how to do personality selling, I actually teach them exactly the opposite that you just said, if they're a rookie or if they feel like they don't have their buyer type nailed down. So let's say, so there's four main buyer types, right? There's aggressive, there's social, there's analytical and there's thoughtful. Okay. Now no person is like exactly type. They might be a hybrid of two, or they might be a few different ones. Most people though have one dominant type. Right? And so when you're selling somebody, you're focusing on, like, when you, when you pitch somebody you're focusing on their dominant personality, because if you can pitch their dominant personality, then you'll be able to get past their sales wall. Their true sales wall is really just getting past that dominant personality is getting somebody to feel like, okay, this guy actually is like different than any other salesman I've ever met.Speaker 3 (00:33:07):And he's, I can relate to this guy because he's basically me. Right? And, and it's just like, if you walk into a best buy and you want to buy a TV and all you want to know is what is the bottom line? What's the price. And why is this CD better than all the other ones? If that rep walks up to you and starts talking about how your day has been and you know, do you have a dog and, and, oh, what's your dog's name? And, oh, Hey, by the way, we have this new TV that does this and this and this, like, you're not going to buy from them. You're going to walk away because they didn't sell you the way you wanted to buy. But if that rep knew that all you wanted to know was the bottom line and you wanted to know which TV was the best and why.Speaker 3 (00:33:43):And all he did was walk up and say, Hey man, how's it going? How's your day going? Cool. So check it out. Um, I'm assuming you probably just want to know exactly which TV is the best and like, why it's the best. Right. Well, let me take you over here and let me give you exactly what I think is going to be best for you. And then I'll tell you the price and then you can make a decision. Oh, boom. All of a sudden, now he's selling you exactly how you want to buy. There's no BS, it's straight bottom line. Right. You're going to be much more likely to buy from that guy. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, so again, it comes down to understanding those types and, and realizing that each of them want to want to be sold a different way. Um, before I got to remind me where we were before.Speaker 2 (00:34:31):Yeah. I was just, I was just saying, you know, like, I think it's important for guys to be able to like, you know, learn all different types. So you're saying your disputes. So you're saying you agree with being able to sell, sell to all different types? Or whatSpeaker 3 (00:34:44):Do you mean by that? No. So what I'm saying is when I teach reps, the reason why I just said all that is because the reason when I teach reps, how to do personality selling, if they're a rookie or if they're a veteran, but they haven't quite nailed down their buyer types. So let's say, let's say this guy, just his buyer type a hundred percent is the aggressive buyer, but he's still losing sales when he talks to aggressive buyers. Okay. I'm not going to tell that guy, Hey, learn how to sell this type and this type and this type and this type until he gets to the point where it's like clockwork, he hits an aggressive buyer, boom sold every single time or 90% of the time, 95% of the time. Right? So, same thing with rookies. I'm not going to teach a rookie how to sell four different types of people.Speaker 3 (00:35:28):I'm going to find out based on what that rookie seller type is like, what, how they like to sell. That's going to tell me what their buyer type is. And then I'm going to teach them exactly how to sell that buyer type so that they can crush it every single time. And then once that rookie is selling that type every single time. And once that veteran is knocking down those types every single time, then it's like, okay, now let's go to the type. That's most like that type. And now all you have to do is a few different things. And now you're adding two buyers to your arsenal. And then eventually when you get past those two, it's like, okay, now we're going to go to this one and you have to understand that you have to do this and this and this and this.Speaker 3 (00:36:06):And now all of a sudden there's three buyers to the arsenal. Right? Okay. And, and the reason why I always tell people again, to go back and answer the question of why did I decide to train on that at knock star? It's because I believe that that is the difference between talent and hard work. Everybody always says, artwork, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but they forget that the second part to that is hard work, beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but when talent works hard, it's game over. Because if you can find somebody that knows how to sell every single type of person they ever meet, and they work really, really hard, I promise you that person is going to run circles around any salesman that ever comes across that ever comes. Right. Okay. But the problem is, at least I haven't seen it yet.Speaker 3 (00:36:54):I haven't seen a rep that has that much talent, that doesn't only rely on the talent and get complacent and not work as hard, which is why you always hear the top performers. The number one rep say, Hey, I'm not that talented. I just work really hard. I work harder than everybody else. Well, why? Because most of the time that rep is only going to be selling one or two types of people. And so they have to work harder than the talented rep. Not, not saying that the, the number one rep is not talented. They're both talented, but there's a very big gap in talent. If one can only sell one or two types of people and they have to search for those one or two types of people all day, every day, and one can sell every type of person and they don't really have to search.Speaker 3 (00:37:35):And they, those are the guys that go out and knock one street and sell six or seven accounts or whatever. And everybody's like, how the freak did you do that? And it's like, well, I know how to sell everyone. And so where you have to sell five streets to find the six types of people that you know, how to sell, or the six people that are the type that you know how to sell. I mean, I just have to knock one street and I can sell six people that are totally different types. Hmm. Does that makeSpeaker 2 (00:38:01):Sense? Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Let me ask you this. Well, yeah, in this year still going, but I was just going to ask,Speaker 3 (00:38:08):I was just going to say, I think, I think the reason why I decided to teach this all the time is because I think it's literally the key to unlocking like the absolute best in a, in a door to door salesman. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I would agree with that.Speaker 2 (00:38:23):Um, I was going to ask you, would you say, um, like for the sales reps, you train, would you say their buying type matches up with their selling type? Like the type of buyer there is that always the type of that they like to sell toSpeaker 3 (00:38:36):Every single time. So for example, what kind of, I'll just do you, for example, what kind of person do you feel most comfortable selling?Speaker 2 (00:38:46):Um, I would say the people that like to talk a lot that let me build rapport with them. Okay.Speaker 3 (00:38:54):You like the social buyers more, right? Yeah. So social buyers. Okay. They are, they are extremely talkative, right? Sometimes they'll appear to have they'll look like they have like add, right? They like to gossip. They like to talk a ton. They like to be complimented. Their greatest need in life is social acceptance. And their greatest fear is being rejected. Right. They dress, they dress like fancy or they wear bright clothes. They care a lot about their outward appearance. Right. So now I don't know you super well tailored, but I, and the other thing too is I'll, let's just talk about facial features. A facial feature for a social buyer is they have puffy cheeks, like round puffy cheeks. That, that basically signify. They laugh a lot. Right? Laugh lines from the nose to their mouth. Okay. Around her face. Okay. Now I'm looking at you right now and you have those features.Speaker 3 (00:39:51):You have the puffy cheeks right now. You're smiling and you have the line through your nose, through your mouth. You have a rounder face. Okay. You probably care what people think about you and that's okay. You probably care what you're wearing and how you look and how you appear. You obviously like to talk a lot. And you're very social because you're running a podcast and, and I guarantee you without even knowing you, I can tell you right now that one of your greatest fears is probably being rejected. Now, maybe because it's door to door sales, you've kind of like, you know, you kind of taught yourself to not be so afraid of that, but I promise you before the doors, that was probably one of your biggest, like, you probably took a long time to sign on because you were so afraid of, of rejection and of, of getting into a place where it was like impossible.Speaker 3 (00:40:38):Right? The other thing too is your greatest need is to be socially accepted. So I can tell that right now you have the golden door behind you right now, right? The golden door. Okay. You have the golden door award behind you on your podcast because you want people to see what you've accomplished because you care about that social recognition. Right? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I don't know you very well, but I just sized you up in what, 30 seconds. So, because of that, I would know as your manager or as your trainer, that the best place to put you as somewhere where there's a lot of people, just like you, because you'll sell them much easier than you would sell someone say that cares more about data and numbers and is very monotone and doesn't want to talk. And doesn't like to be happy and always seems like a freaking judge in a courtroom. Right? Someone very rich, someone, very skeptical. That's probably one of your hardest sales ever because that's the opposite of your personality. Yeah, no doubt. And,Speaker 2 (00:41:33):Um, I don't know. I might be like a hybrid too, because I don't know if you remember this, but at a door knock star, you called me up. And I was dressed like basically in sweats andSpeaker 3 (00:41:42):Just like thoughtful,Speaker 2 (00:41:45):Like thoughtful. And, uh, Ian calls me out. He's like, all right, this guy, a hundred percent is thoughtful. Look, because look what he's dressed in at Justin, like this baggy shirt, like some sweat dance and everything. I'm like, dang, maybe I should have showed up to the podcast and like a tux or something. So I can't readSpeaker 3 (00:42:02):That's okay though, because again, the thing about salesmen too, is it's kind of hard to size up salesmen as much as it is, as it is to size up just regular individuals. Because as a salesman, you kind of have to become a hybrid of everything anyway. Right. Just naturally. Um, but I would for sure, say like, you're, you're going to be a social thoughtful hybrid for sure. Yeah. So the question is when you get into a group of people, like, let's say, you don't know anybody in a room and you walk into the room, are you the type of person that's going to go strike up a conversation and be, and be the life of the party? Or are you the type of person that's going to kind of wait until somebody comes to you? And then once they, once they get to meet you, that's when the life of the party comes out. And like that's when the energetic Taylor comes out. Which, which one of those is more ofSpeaker 2 (00:42:49):What would happen? Um, I mean, I would say a combination because I don't like to be the guy that, again, like the recognition part, I know that if I'm like sitting at a party by myself, just like standing there awkward, then I'm going to be like recognized, oh, what's this guy. Like, it doesn't like talking to people or whatever. So it's all, it's not that I like have a huge desire to go talk to people, but I don't want to be recognized as someone that's just like a loner standing there. So all like forced myself to go like initiate something, just so I'm not recognized as like, you know, the guy that doesn't want to go talk to people and present himself. So I don't know if that would be like a hybrid or,Speaker 3 (00:43:23):Yeah. So let me ask you one more, let me ask you another question. We'll try to dig down. So would you say that your greatest need is social recognition or your greatest need is guarantees? Which one of those would you say is the greatest need for you in life? Um,Speaker 2 (00:43:41):I would say guarantees, I thinkSpeaker 3 (00:43:44):So you'd rather have a guarantee than be liked.Speaker 2 (00:43:49):Um, I don't know. Like, are we talking to my guarantee of success guarantee and money guarantee of happiness, stuff like that,Speaker 3 (00:43:56):Or, or even let's put it this way. Do you care more about your own personal success or do you care more about the success of those around you?Speaker 2 (00:44:05):Um, I think I would say it's success of those around me. Um, okay,Speaker 3 (00:44:11):So you, so you, so I might've nailed it at door to door, honestly, dude, you might be the thoughtful slash um, social rather than the social slash thoughtful. And the only reason I'm saying that, because I'm facing you right now and I can see your facial features and those are more on the social side. Right. Okay. But the fact that you want others to succeed and the, that you care more about guarantees and the fact that you, you would go talk to people, but you wouldn't be like super energetic about it and stuff. And just kind of more doing it because you like have to, and you are more of the thoughtful person first and the social person is the in dominant. Yeah.Speaker 2 (00:44:47):I would agree with that because I was always super shy growing up as like the shyest kid in school type thing for a long time. And then, but I was sick of being like recognized that way. So I would again like force myself to try to not be shy, to try to like go out and talk to people just because I was sick of being like, oh, Hey, this is Taylor. He doesn't talk very much. So that's how I got presented, like by my own parents and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, I don't know.Speaker 3 (00:45:12):And that's a perfect hybrid because you can see like, you didn't like being, you didn't like them saying that about you because you didn't want people to think badly about you, you, you cared about what people thought about you, right? Yeah. And, and so all of that kind of just grows into the same thing. And, and again, you know, at Knox star, I called you out and I said, Hey, you're thoughtful right away. Right. Because of the way you're addressing, because of the way you're carrying yourself. And I believe you put your hands in your pocket. When I told you we were going to write that things like here, here, we're conversing and we're being social and I see your facial features. And so now I'm seeing the social side of you. So, so it's different. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So, so you kind of have to, you kind of have to just know those personalities, but realize that people are going to be a hybrid.Speaker 3 (00:45:53):And you're a perfect example of it. But knowing that I would know to put you in places where you're going to find people who are social or people who are thoughtful, and I'm not going to put you in places that are just like crazy aggressive and very skeptical. And like data driven will fall flat on your face. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So now think about how powerful that is for a manager. Let's say. And I, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened. That I'll go to an office and the manager will say, dude, this guy, he is the most outgoing, like super confident. He knows how to talk. He knows the pitch. He knows the product, but he keeps on battling or he goes out and he only gets a couple sales and it doesn't make sense to me.Speaker 3 (00:46:36):And then I have this guy and, and, and he should also be selling a ton as well, but he's not doing very well or whatever. Right. And my first question is always, okay, where are you putting the guy that's super outgoing and confident and social and, and should be selling a lot. Where are you putting him? And I'm telling you, I cannot tell you how many times this has happened, where they're like, yeah, he's in this neighborhood. And it's like a retirement community or where people are constantly going to be thoughtful and analytical, right. Because they're skeptical and they care about their community and they want guarantees and they hate change. And it's like, of course, that guy's going to suck there. He doesn't know how to sell those types of people. So then it's like, okay, put him where that other guy was, put them in the city where people are more aggressive and social. And every single time that rep comes back and all of a sudden he's selling 5, 6, 7, consistently every single. And then all of a sudden he's reaching his potential simply because he's selling the people that he knows how to sell. Wow.Speaker 2 (00:47:36):Yeah. That's awesome. That's crazy. Yeah. This stuff makes you, like, I dunno, you could almost be a psychologist. Well, with all this stuff, Ian saying these things and I'm like, dang, this, guy's like, tell him my life story. Some of these things he's able to identify. I think it's a super power, but yeah, that's actually kind of what I was going to ask you next is like, say you're a manager, you know, these things, you know, you need to put this sells wrap in like a social area. How do you recognize in these areas? It was like for you as it just kind of like city?Speaker 3 (00:48:05):No, no, not at all. So think about it this way. Right? So prospecting a lot of people, especially everyone in the door industry, I feel like, think that prospecting comes down to, you know, oh, uh, signs of life, like, oh, the doors open or the mailbox or, or the, the freaking oil marks on the thing or whatever. Right. We're just looking for signs of life. And that's all the prospecting is that couldn't be farther from the truth. Real prospecting comes down to prospecting based on the people. So for example, if I know that I know how to sell really aggressive people, if that's my buyer type, when I get to my area, the first thing I'm looking for is a signs of an aggressive buyer. So what are signs of an aggressive buyer? Well, aggressive people are very, um, confident, right? Their greatest fear is, is, uh, is, is losing control.Speaker 3 (00:48:57):And their greatest need is being in control, right? Is meaning control and always like being right. That's their, that's their greatest need. Right? They're also the type of people that don't want any BS. They're the type of person that, like I said before, where you walk into the TV store and this is that type of person they want the bottom line. That's all they want is the bottom line. All they care about is here's my problem. Here's the solution. Why does it make sense? Why is it the best? Why is it the best solution? And what's going to make it so that I'm not wrong about what I'm doing. Right. And so that I can control that situation. So those types of people are usually very, um, very like outspoken and loud, right? They're going to wear solid colors. They're going to look and walk.Speaker 3 (00:49:43):Like, they're very confident. So you have, you know, military people, you have athletes, you have, um, uh, you know, just like if I'm walking on the street and I see a huge lifted truck that has, uh, uh, a freaking American flag on the back and like a bunch of stickers about guns, chances are that person's probably pretty aggressive period. Right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. If I am, I'm an aggressive person. You came to my house, you would be finding an aggressive person. I am a hundred percent aggressive. Right. So then let's say I'm walking on the same street. And I see, you know, a bunch of, a bunch of sports memorabilia and a bunch of, a bunch of stuff like that in the garage and a motorcycle. And then on the door, there's a sign says, solicitors will be shot or there's like an aggressive, no soliciting sign.Speaker 3 (00:50:31):The chances are that person's also probably pretty aggressive, right? Yeah. But let's say I'm walking down that same street. And instead, now I see a really, really nice Escalade and their house is super nice. And there's like, like really cool or really like pretty flowers all over the place. And it just looks like it's meant to stand out and how, you know, whoever lives there, once everyone that drives down that road to say, see that house and be like, whoa, chances are, that's probably a really social person because they care a lot about recognition. Right. Okay. See what I'm saying? So you can prospect based on, based on just the outward appearances of houses, but the other thing about that is understanding personalities and understanding what kind of environments those personalities live in. So for example, cities, why is it that a lot of people struggle to sell in cities?Speaker 3 (00:51:25):Well, because cities are full of people that are super fast. Like their, their lives are fast paced. They don't want any BS. They don't want to bother with anybody. If they're gonna make decisions, they're probably gonna make it themselves. Right. They're the kind of people that don't want to just sit around and talk and small talk and be friendly. Right. There's also a lot of people that are very analytical in cities, right. They have a lot of, you know, whatever. So what does that tell me if I have a rep that sucks at selling aggressive people and it's the type of rep that is very much more inclined to selling people that are going to sit down on their porch and offer them a lemonade. Right. And talk about Joe, Bob down the street and, and like talk about their family and, and just, you know, they want to know about the features and they want to, they want to have a friendly conversation.Speaker 3 (00:52:13):There's no way in this world or the next that I'm going to put that rep in the city. Right. I'm going to take my, yeah. I'm going to take my freaking soldiers of reps, the ones that are super aggressive, very fast, very smart. Very, to the point they don't want to BS. They don't want to waste time with everybody. I'm going to put them in the city. Right. Gotcha. Okay. So, so city aggressive, analytical, right? Um, also social you'll find a lot of social people there too. But when you put people in like smaller towns, what do you think you're finding in smaller towns? Mostly social, right. Thoughtful. Yeah. Every rep likes to sell in small towns because you're meeting tons of people that are just happy and like very slow paced. And, you know, they like to give referrals because they're friends with everybody, right. People in the city, most people in the city don't even know their neighbor. True. Because again, they're just aggressive. They just, the type of people that don't care. They don't like just get to the point of life in general. Yeah. Okay.Speaker 2 (00:53:14):I see. Now, um, yeah. What about like, cause there's lots of companies that might listen to this that have huge teams, like they're just sending out armies of reps too. I mean, they're not spending the time to go through all this and recognize, you know, their selves rep buying type, selling type, all these things. So what do you say to those teams, like say a team of like 70 reps and I mean, they, don't got time to recognize all these things and give out specific areas. So, um, I don't know. Is there anything you suggest?Speaker 3 (00:53:43):Yeah. Yeah. So that's a great question. So, so I mean, obviously this that's a perfect scenario where you can put your, you know, you can put your, your reps that are this type in that perfect area and you know, that's not always going to happen. So what I would, what I would say is anytime I would go out to an office to train them, the first thing I would try to realize with a big office is, or I would try to figure out is what are they running into the most? Right. So I'll give you a perfect example. One office that I trained, um, this is years and years back. And they actually ended up being the number one office. What I realized was the people they were selling, um, in this state were very, very, um, thoughtful because their biggest concern, as I listened to their reps and their managers, I'm like, what is it?Speaker 3 (00:54:28):You guys are running into like, why are you having so much? Why are you struggling so much? Will do everybody just wants to think about it. Everyone wants to think about it. They all want cards that nobody wants to make a decision. Well, what does that tell me? That tells me that they're selling nothing but thoughtful people because thoughtful people hate change. Right. And they want guarantee and consistency. So those are the type of people that are always going to say, I want to think about it, right. Or I want more time or whatever. So what did I do? That's the situation where you have to say, okay, you have 50 reps. And every single one of them is probably a different type of, of, of seller, but we're going to teach every single one of you, how to be a thoughtful seller. Okay. So, so when everybody comes to me and says, Hey, you know, I hate it. When people make the excuse of bad area, there is no such thing as bad area area. There's just a such thing as different area. Yeah. There's no bad area. It's just different. The people are different. The pace is different. The way you need to sell them is different. Everything is different. Right. Um, but that's, again why I said at the very beginning of this, that I believe that truly talented reps are the ones that know how to sell anyone, anything, anywhere. And that all comes down to the fact that they just know people. Wow.Speaker 2 (00:55:41):A hundred percent. So yeah. For our Solarpreneurs listening, I think that's a great point. The reason I asked that Ian is because, I mean, our, our company just merged with another team. So we're sitting at like 50 reps right now. And I know our team's not taking the time out and recognize these things. So yeah. I like that answer. I mean, for people listening, if you are getting a specific objection, go out and train on that. Recognize these buyer types. Yeah. Anything else you want to say to that?Speaker 3 (00:56:07):Well, I would just say, but at the same time, if you have, you know, if your team of 50, you have four or five guys that are just absolute monsters on the doors and you want to put them in the best situation possible, we'll then focus on putting them in the best situation possible. Okay. Does that make sense? Because with a rookie you can whitewash them to learn how to sell whoever you need to teach them how to sell. If you bring in 20 brand new reps and they don't even know how to sell period. Well, it's easier to teach a puppy how to be a different [inaudible], you know, it's easy to teach to a calm puppy to be more aggressive or aggressive puppy, to be more calm at the very beginning. Right. But if you have veteran reps that are just absolute monsters and it's because they sell a certain type of way, put them where they're going to be the most successful and focus on getting them in the best situation possible and then teach all the other guys how to sell where they are. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. I love that.Speaker 2 (00:56:58):It makes sense. So yeah. Huge key there. And yeah, I'm going to take that back to my team because I'm definitely, we're not doing that on our teams right now, thinking that's a great solution. Um, so yeah, I know we're running short on time here, Ian, we barely scratched the surface and all these things. So I know for guys that haven't really heard much about these buying types. Definitely go look more into it. Do you have any books or where did you first hear about all these buying types and things seen?Speaker 3 (00:57:23):So, um, the F the number one book I would suggest is called navigate 2.0, it's literally exactly what, what I'm teaching, but this book was geared more towards like phone sales and business to business sales. So basically Fridays, I just took all the parents apples out of that book, and I made it, I tailored it to, to door to door. Okay. Um, and, uh, and so that would, that's where I would start. And then there's, there's tons of other books that you can get out there, tons of other programs and things. You've just got to kind of dive into Google and look for that stuff. Um, yeah, but I would also say what you said about psychology. Like a lot of this has to do w

2021 Garmin Map Card, Spine Race, what have they done to the OS app, more units discontinued and ask Ian. In this month's podcast A quick update on the 2021 OS map cards from GarminSpine race – well done to all our customers who have taken part in this event.After we sung the praises of the OS app in a recent Podcast, in their wisdom they managed to undo any good work they had done just a few weeks later. We look at what they have done.Yet more units discontinued by Garmin, we look at a year where Garmin have certainly cleared the stable out.Stock availability – sorry I know it is a recurring theme, but a quick update on stock issuesAsk Ian – the questions you have been asking Ian over the past month The first thing on this month's Podcast is a look at the recent update on the Garmin 1:50k map card Last month we discussed that Garmin, after a very long wait, updated the 1:25k map cardIn the past month we also received and update of the 1:50k TOPO Great Britain PRO 1:50k map cardSo both map cards are now V2OS release ¼ of the country every year as a map update so cards get updated every 4 years but for some reason the 1:50k map card has been updated after 3 years.What changes on OS maps? You can buy the new map card as a standalone product on GPS Training and all new Garmin GPS unit bundles are now being shipped with updated map cards, unlike some other retailers The next thing on this month's GPS training podcast is a look back at the Spine race – well done to all our customers who have taken part in this event. The Montane Spine Race is widely regarded as one of the world's toughest endurance races. There are both summer and winter events and the summer event started on Saturday 19th June. In our 31st episode, we interviewed Paul Freeman after he completed the Spine Challenger race.A truly epic challenge that will test your physical resilience and mental fortitude. Racing non-stop along the Pennine Way – 268 miles There are ‘shorter' races within the main race but all are true challenges. As I spoke about this in last month's Podcasts many people are introduces to GPS units for the first time with an event like this. We have had a number of customers participating in the event and well done to all those who took part. Before they start the Spine Race they have to demonstrate they can get their current Grid reference from their GPS unit. So, Ian how would people do this – Satellite pageCreate waypoint of your current location If you want to find more about the Spine race please just go to their website – thespinerace.comThe next thing on this month's podcast is the recent updates to the OS app. After Ian sung the praises of the OS app in a recent Podcast, in their wisdom OS managed to undo any good work they had done just a few weeks later. So Ian, what have they done? Basically, when you plan a route on the app, it exports as a track in to Garmin Explore unlike all the other apps you can use….. I am slowly working on the OS. They have now admitted that they have trashed it for the time being and accept it needs to be altered back to what it was prior their three app updates in March. That still hasn't been done. As we do have, I think, quite a few customers who use this app, it may be worth talking about it/other options that work?The next thing on the GPS Training Podcast is the end of the road for the Garmin Oregon 750 Another one bights the dust – This year we have seen the A number of units ‘discontinued' – Touch 25t, we still have the 35tGPSMAP 64sx and GPSMAP 66stMontana 610, 680 and 680tThen the Oregon 750tAnd then this week we saw the Garmin Oregon 750 be discontinued. Don't work both ourselves and Garmin will continue to support these units for many years to come.Stock availability – sorry I know it is a recurring theme, but a quick update on stock issues Currently out of stock of GPSMAP 66sr, Montana 700i Shortage of ‘chips'

Evangelion Rebuild 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance is the most popular peice of Evangelion-related media according to several polls. But Ian and Joseph cannot stan... So Ian brought Eric Thurm, podcaster at Fanbyte and author of 'Avidly Reads Board Games' to defend it from Joseph's ultimate rejection-type assault. Will Eric's critical acument protect him when his A.T. Field fails? Will Joseph assimilate him and begin the climax too darn early? Will Ian find his plot line replaced by a new character nobody wants? We can't say. The only promise is: More fan service than anyone can handle. Analysis - 7:20 Eric is a lapsed TV and animation critic whose work can be found in, among other places, The New York Times, Vulture, and FanByte. He is also the author of Avidly Reads: Board Games and a member of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project. Buy Avidly Reads: Board Games here: https://nyupress.org/9781479826957/avidly-reads-board-games/

BIO: Ian Moyse is the Chief Revenue Officer at OneUp Sales. He is a decorated and numerously awarded sales director. STORY: A few years ago, Ian was between jobs, so when the first opportunity came knocking, he accepted it without doing any due diligence. The company turned out to be toxic, and he had to leave after nine months only. LEARNING: Do your due diligence to make sure that you accept the job that is right for you. Do not let your vulnerability blind you to accepting just any opportunity that comes along.  “When you are desperate for a job, that’s when you should do more due diligence than you normally would.” Ian Moyse  Guest profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmoyse/ (Ian Moyse), Chief Revenue Officer at https://www.oneupsales.co.uk/book-a-demo/ (OneUp Sales), has sat on the boards of a number of industry bodies, such as FAST (Federation Against Software Theft), CIF (Cloud Industry Forum), and Eurocloud. He was awarded the accolade of BESMA UK Sales Director of the year and was listed in the top 50 Sales Keynote speakers by Top Sales World. Ian was rated #1 Cloud influencer Onalytica and has been recognized as a leading cloud Blogger and is utilized by a range of global brands as a Cloud Computing thought leader. Worst investment everA number of years ago, Ian was in the unfortunate circumstance of being between jobs. Even though he had a bit of money saved to cushion him for some time, he did not want to be jobless for too long. So Ian was interviewing and happened to find an opportunity. It was not the perfect job, but he could make it work. Great on the face valueThe job opportunity was in a family business that looked great at face value. Its revenue had been stagnant for a few years, but Ian was excited at the chance to get onboard and reignite the business. Doing what he is good atIan took the role because he needed a job. He built a team of about nine people and got to work. He identified all the changes that the company needed and was ready to implement them once the company owners approved them. The cracks start to showIt was at this point that Ian started to realize there were some cracks in the company. He found out that there was dysfunction and politics in the family that spilled over to the business. This made it so difficult for him to change things. His ideas would get opposed all the time just because family members could not get along. It was very frustrating. The culture in the business was also getting quite toxic. The people Ian had hired started leaving the company as they could not handle the toxic environment anymore. Ian also quit after nine months at the company. Failed to do his due diligenceThe worst investment mistake that Ian made was investing his time in a job without doing enough diligence. This caused him to take on a job that was not a good fit for him. Lessons learnedDo your due diligence to make sure that you accept the job that is right for youYour desperate need for an income may cause you to put up with stuff, but you must think very carefully about a role you’re going to take. You don’t want to be in a toxic environment which will affect your mental health, the people around you, and your home, or put you in a position where you need to look for another job. Andrew’s takeawaysDo not let your vulnerability blind you to accepting just any opportunityWhen in desperate need of a job, realize your vulnerability at that time. Use that vulnerability as a tool to put a little bit more thought into what you’re committing to. This is very important because vulnerability could put you in a position where you could be willing to overlook stuff and not do your due diligence because you can’t afford to say no to a job offer. Actionable adviceWhen you are desperate for a job, do more diligence than you would normally. The beauty is that there’s more opportunity to do it now than ever before because of the web. Research companies that you are interested in...

Why is prospecting a long game? How do you build relationships that lead to new customers? What is the right way to do social selling? Ian Moyse—the EMEA Sales Director for Natterbox—joins me on today's show to answer these questions and so much more. Don’t miss out on his insight and expertise in the world of prospecting and lead generation.  Outline of This Episode [1:05] Lead generation and prospecting: What’s the difference? [2:42] Why lead gen and prospecting are so important [4:54] What does Ian’s prospecting process look like? [7:48] The attributes of a great prospector [10:01] Skillsets to focus on developing [13:14] Ian’s prospecting and lead generation dos and don’ts [20:54] Ian’s favorite prospecting story Keep your bucket full Ian points out that salespeople have a bucket. That bucket is always emptying because you’re either losing deals or winning deals. Either way, your pipeline is emptying and you must look ahead. Many salespeople spend all of their time closing. Suddenly, they have a bad quarter and realize their bucket is empty because they haven't been prospecting.  During Covid-19, Ian has consistently heard conversations where a project is being deferred because the business itself is stopping all spend. 2020 has demonstrated that you need to keep your pipeline full. You want to aim for 5x your target in the pipeline. It takes consistent continual prospecting. Ian points out that there’s no perfect answer. There is no golden key. It takes hard work. His advice is to focus on your perfect persona customer. Too many activities are just trying to fill the bucket. But you need people in the bucket who are in alignment with your value proposition. It’s better to have more qualified leads in your pipeline than waste your time.  What are the attributes of someone who is great at prospecting? What skills should a sales professional focus on developing? Listen to hear Ian’s thoughts! Ian’s prospecting and lead generation don’ts Ian emphasizes that you can’t think activity is productivity. Ian has seen too many people who gave up on social selling because their bosses force them to make 50 calls a day. They’re hung up on activity. But what if you could do it differently? What if there was a better way to generate their quota of leads without cold-calling? Activity should be done in the smartest way. Ian is tired of hearing “Sales is a numbers game.” He also points out that you shouldn’t connect then pitch. Everyone sees it: You get a connection invite on a social platform and it seems genuine. But soon after, you get a sales pitch. They think that’s social selling. That’s going up to someone and instead of chit-chatting after a handshake, you immediately pitch them. You’d never do it in the real world.  Stop chasing the same person in the same manner. If they haven't looked at the first few emails or messages, how annoyed will people be when they see the 4th, 5th, or 6th? It doesn’t work. The more you do, the more the walls go up. You've created a human spam filter. You will probably never get through to them because the more you push, the more they resist. Ian’s prospecting and lead generation dos Ian reiterates the need to take time to qualify your leads. Don’t sell to someone who isn’t your prospect. If you look at someone’s LinkedIn profile, the clues are there to help you find a way to a conversation. Ian gets pitched all the time on social selling and CRM. But if salespeople simply looked at his LinkedIn profile and what he does, you’d never approach him trying to sell those things.  He implores you to be like Sherlock. Go deeper and smarter than your average salesperson. It’s not rocket science. Slow down, read, and work smart. How do you find an authentic way that isn’t just reaching out cold and getting ignored? What will lead to a conversation? Ian will find a way to get a warm introduction from someone else by looking for shared connections. If you share 20 connections, who of those do you have a relationship with? There might be 3 people.  Reach out to each of them and let them know you’re trying to connect to someone. Then ask how well they know them. You’ll get nos—but sometimes you’ll get a yes. Secondly, look at their jobs. Is there anyone there that you might know that they’d be connected with? It doesn’t feel quick, but you have a better chance of getting to a conversation than a phone call. He encourages you to be bold and ask for introductions. He just had a new customer come on board and has built great rapport with them. Ian noticed they were connected to a senior person at another organization. So Ian reached out and asked for a formal LinkedIn introduction. He got a conversation and got a call booked.  What is Ian’s favorite prospecting story? How is prospecting playing the long game? Ian tells a fascinating story that takes tenacity and consistency in this episode. Don’t miss it! Connect with Ian Moyse Connect on LinkedIn Follow on Twitter Connect With Paul Watts  LinkedIn Twitter Subscribe to SALES REINVENTED Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

So Ian shoots me a text like "I've got this idea." I was wide open, even though I had no idea what it was going to look like. Join my Caribbean brother from a different mother and high-performance CEO Ian Charlery and myself for a wide-ranging conversation on life, love, balance, and what it means for men to lead with love and from the heart in these scary times. Even though I didn't know what it would look like, I want this to be a regular feature and I hope you get the value from this conversation that Ian and I had having it. https://www.instagram.com/lifecoachingforfree/ - Ian's Instagram http://www.royalheartscoaching.com/soulr-powered-podcast - Soul-R Powered Website https://www.facebook.com/soulrpoweredpodcast - Soul-R Powered Facebook https://twitter.com/ryanhallwrites - My Twitter https://www.instagram.com/ryanhallwrites/ - My Instagram https://www.facebook.com/ryanhallwrites - Royal Hearts Coaching Facebook http://www.royalheartscoaching.com/ - Website --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/soul-r-powered/support

Yeah so we had nothing for this episode. Real big stinker as far as content, even if it is a well-produced and animated part of the BeBop canon. So - Ian decided to put Mark's choice-making decisions to the test and play a few rounds of Marry/Fuck/Kill with the starter Pokemon. If you're a bird-type, look out - Mark wants to devour your corpse. This episode was edited by David Roller. Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/animegnorant) Twitter (http://twitter.com/animegnorant) Gmail (mailto:animegnorant@gmail.com) Coast Off (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KwCRpIOzvyimVl5KX5VWs) Artwork (https://www.instagram.com/sammybops/) Please rate & review wherever this podcast is found!     

It's our 28th podcast. In today’s podcast we …… 2 mins 30 seconds - Chat about the dreaded C word, yes Christmas. What top kit is around and is tempting us as we approach the festive period. Don’t worry it’s not all going to be about the most expensive thing in the market we will chat about things for all budgets. 40 mins - Then we are going to chat over the all new GPSMAP86s and 86i, these are Outdoor GPS units that are very much aimed at the Sea Kayakers etc but they have a couple of interesting twists compared to the 66s and 66i that Garmin already produce. 48 mins - And then we have Ian’s FAQ’s, Garmin unit, Garmin watch and SatMap 1. So Ian, it’s the start of November and here we go, we start the build up to Christmas, in the next few minutes we are going to look at some of te must have things we would have on our Christmas lists. Best budget GPS (under £300.00) - GPSMAP64sx – Sleeping giant in this category or old unit rebranded? eTrex 22x and 32x (you could get both of these with Birdseye Plus Vouchers) Touch 25 (you could also get this with Birdseye Plus Voucher and of course the Touch 35, which sadly with a Birdseye Plus voucher would push it over the £300.00 ceiling. Best top end GPS unit (under £500.00) – including maps Oregon 700 with TOPO PRO 1:50k/ Birdseye Plus Voucher GPSMAP66s with TOPO PRO 1:50k/ Birdseye Plus Voucher GPSMAP66i, with just the TOPO ACTIVE maps would also just sneak into this bracket by 1p. SatMap Active 20 with 1:50k maps Best top end GPS unit (unlimited budget) Whatever you want – Oregon 700/750, 66s, 66i and Active 20 all these you could get with 1:25k and 1:50k and the Active 20 also comes with 1:10k Best Accessories for those already got a Garmin handheld GPS unit, lets put a budget on this, lets sat £25.00 and think of a practical accessory (which you would buy for yourself) and that accessory you may ask someone to buy for you, maybe less practical but good fun. Practical Backpack tether - £17.99Bike Mount - £9.99Garmin retractable Lanyard - £19.99Garmin Carry case – £9.99/ £11.99Silicone case (eTrex Touch users) - £10.99Good batteries and charger? Less Practical but fun Tempe sensor - £24.99Chirp - £20.00 And then moving onto GPS Watches – Now I think watches are going to be the big thing this Christmas, I know many of our listeners are handheld users but who does not want a smart GPS watch on your wrist Best Budget – Under £400.00 In this category we have only got a couple of watches – Garmin Instinct - £269.99Casio ProTrek WSD-30 - £399.99 (works with Viewranger app) Best top end (unlimited budget) Fenix 6 - £599.99Fenix 6s - £599.99Fenix 6 Sapphire - £699.99Fenix 6s Sapphire - £699.99Fenix 6x Sapphire - £749.99Fenix 6x Solar Edition - £849.99And we must mention all the Fenix 5’s are still out there Anything else we have mentioned that you would upgrade, purchase, maps, inReach Mini’s, Power packs, Solar panel chargers Goal Zero kit And if you want to find out more about some of the products we have discussed go to gpstraining.co.uk – click on – GPS Store on the top menu – then – on the left-hand side you will see the different categories for the products we have discussed 2 – The next thing we look at on this month’s Podcast is a look at the all new 86s and 86i We ordered some yesterday from Garmin yesterday but Garmin describe it as – GPSMAP® 86s - Marine Handheld Preloaded With Worldwide Basemap £349.99 and £519.99 (£399.99 and £499.99 for 66s and 66i without maps – interesting comparison. Water-resistant, floating design, sunlight-readable 3" display and button operation provide ease of use on the water Built in battery, on both models, just like the GPSMAP66i, very interesting as heard nothing but good reports about that. Has memory card slot but Garmin don’t say if we can put Outdoor Maps (OS maps) on, lets see, I think it may just be the case of putting a TOPO PR...

Welcome to this month’s GPS Training podcast, it’s our 21st episode. Today we again have Ian, who delivers our Training courses in the South of England, and Ross So, without further ado let’s get on with today’s podcast …… It's our 21st podcast. In today’s podcast we have the following – · 1 min 30 seconds in - We talk to Ian’s about his experiences of the Garmin Fenix 5 plus, a GPS watch from Garmin · 11 min 55 sec seconds in - We talk with Ross from Burton McCall about portable power · 37 min 20 seconds in - And then we have Ian’s FAQ’s, both Garmin and SatMap   The first thing we have this month’s podcast is a chat with Ian regarding his experiences with the Garmin Fenix 5 plus GPS watch Ian received a Fenix 5 plus as your Christmas present last year so you have been using it for three months now so I am really interested to know your thoughts and experiences of your Fenix 5 plus. So Ian, I know over the past month we have also had some training as we built up to our GPS watch taster days, and I know you have your GPS Watch taster day, in the South Downs on Saturday 6th April. So, Ian, what are where your initial thoughts on the watch?How have you been using it?What key features have you really liked with the GPS watch?Have you used it much to actually navigate with?Battery life? To find out more about the GPS Watch taster day in the South Downs please go to - gpstraining.co.uk – click on - gps training courses – then – on the left-hand side you will see GPS Watch – taster days AND if you want to know more about the Fenix 5 plus GPS Watch please go to gpstraining.co.uk – click on – GPS Store on the top menu – then – on the left-hand side you will see Garmin - GPS Watches   2 – The next thing on this month’s GPS training Podcast is a chat with Ross, from Goal Zero as we chat over portable power Welcome Ross to the Podcast again, I know you are an avid listener to the GPS Training podcast and you appeared on our third podcast when you came and talked about SatMap, so welcome back. Q1. First of all Ross, what is portable power? The simplest explanation is something you carry with you to provide power– usually in the form of battery packs.You can expand it to add in things like solar panels and windup devices.And the part most people forget is the actual device we are going to power, which have their own batteries. Q2. We then need to think about what are people’s requirements and common things we need to consider The Length of time you will be without power – this can effect whether you choose solar v battery capacityHow much Weight you want to carryAnd again the device you want to charge– Garmin AA + SatMap + do you want to charge anything else?We therefore, I know this sounds obvious but it is a power bank, so potentially a replacement to that spare SatMap battery or those AA batteries you have rattling around in your rucksack Q3. Now we now need to think about specific products. Batteries – replacement AA batteries – the most basic portable powerPower packs Q5. Goal Zero – what products do they have and what might be there benefits Through chargingSolar readyConvenience And some examples? Q6. Anything else you think we need to cover. To find out more about portable power - Just go to – gpstraining.co.uk – click on GPS Store – under accessories on the left hand side – Click on Power and Batteries Ian’s FAQ’s I must welcome ian back to the Podcast to talk over some of his FAQ’s, the frequently asked questions he has been asked on his courses over the past month. Ian has kindly joined me in Northumberland this month as he is here to deliver a SatMap GPS Training course here in Northumberland tomorrow. Ian – FAQ 1 – Garmin Can I do a Trackback on a saved track? No. ‘Copy reverse’, exclamation mark in front of the date and time Ian – FAQ 2 – SatMap – Double SatMap bonanza Can I lock the screen on my Active 10/12/20?

Why does accounting have to be so complicated? That was the question today’s guest, Ian Crosby, asked himself. And from that question, America’s largest bookkeeping service for small businesses was born. Ian is the co-founder and CEO of Bench, and he’s talking about taking the grounded route to innovation — and how it’s always about the people.  Humble (and frustrated) beginnings Ian was a bookkeeper in college and came across the problem of: how is there not a place you can just go on the internet and get perfect bookkeeping out? People have to either figure it out themselves, or hire an expert and have no idea if that person is good or doing it right. Why is there no “Gmail for Accounting”?  This is a huge problem that’s been overlooked and he couldn’t get the idea out of his head, so he jumped right into it. The Bench brand of business leadership  At a surface level, bookkeeping can seem really ‘back office-y,’ but when people get on top of their finances, they get a sense of direction and feel powerful. He and his team are out to make a difference in the lives of as many human beings as they can, and that’s what it’s really about: the people. So Ian had to discover how he can connect people to purpose, and the cultural principles that really work for them as a team. It’s that culture that allows Bench to have people keep figuring stuff out and powering their growth. It’s not about Ian at all. It’s about the people in the rooms he’s not even in, talking about what the company is going to do next, having the best ideas surface to the top, and having a team that can carry it out successfully.  On innovation  Innovation isn’t doing new things for the sake of doing new things. As a culture, Bench is very focused on the problems they’re trying to solve — and then what naturally pops out the other end is new. You can’t force innovation. You can just set it up with the right ingredients and let it happen.  The importance of simple, effortless, and portable bookkeeping What it really comes down to is: you should have this stuff at your fingertips. You need to know if your business is making money, if you’re still going to be making it months from now, how to file your taxes, and so on. But you don’t need to be spending hours of your own effort. Part of being a successful business is having an awesome team around you that can let you do awesome things without you having to put in a lot of effort.  Bench rejects the idea of garbage in, garbage out (i.e. that you’re responsible for your books being wrong because you told your bookkeeper the wrong things). The way they’ve built their culture is: we care about your books being right. They take responsibility for your finances the same way Ian takes responsibility for his daughter not running out of the street. Will he let her get run over just because she didn’t look both ways before crossing? Of course not. And you need someone like that on your team.  Tips for business leaders  Once your business becomes more than just you, it’s all about the people you bring on. Your job must switch from having an awesome strategy to making sure the people and culture are the strongest they can be. That was the point Bench really started taking off.  Have a clear understanding of what you’re here to do in the world, have everything come from that understanding, and just do it. That’s integrity and a powerful foundation for all your endeavours. Resources Ian Crosby | Twitter | Bench Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST BIO: Ian Massingham is a Technical Evangelist at Amazon Web Services and has been working with cloud computing technologies since 2008.  Ian has around 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, covering operations and engineering within hosting, telecommunications and cloud service providers.  Ian has a particular interest in the development of Connected Device and IoT applications. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Ian Massingham. Ian has already had a long IT career and is still enjoying getting involved in new fields and pushing the boundaries. He started his career by working for a hosting and internet company that is credited with opening up the UK market. Ian and his team used their telecommunications and coding experience to provide fast and affordable internet services to thousands of UK homeowners. Over the years, Ian has worked as an engineer, developer, manager and leader. Today, he leads Technical and Developer Evangelism for Amazon Web Services. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (0.58) – So Ian, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Ian starts by elaborating on the scale, scope and reach of his AWS role. He is responsible for educating software developers and technical end users of AWS on a global scale. Plus, of course customers who are not yet users of the service. Helping them to see how they can use the platform to improve what they are currently doing and use it for new projects. (1.57) – Does that mean that you have to travel a lot? Ian responds by saying yes. He has to attend a lot of different kinds of events and provide support for team members, right across the globe. Plus, he is a prolific speaker in his own right, which also entails a lot of travel. (2.25) – Phil asks Ian to elaborate on the amount of public speaking work he does. Speaking is a big part of his role as the Director of AWS Evangelism. In fact, his whole team spends a lot of time making presentations. When they recruit new members they look for people who are capable of connecting with software developers across the full range of skill levels. (3.05) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Like many developers he went from being an individual contributor to a manager, then a leader and senior leadership roles. However, unlike most other IT professionals he has periodically taken a step back and worked as an individual contributor again. This slightly unusual approach has really borne fruit. It has helped him to develop all kinds of new skills and deepen his understanding of the latest technologies and how they are deployed. (4.09) – Phil asks if taking this approach refreshes his existing skills as well. Ian says absolutely. When he first joined Amazon Web Services, in 2013, his tech skills were getting rusty. He had just spent several years in a leadership role in which he did not really do any developing. So, when he joined AWS he took the opportunity to spend a bit of time working as an individual contributor, technology evangelist. He really enjoyed reawakening and refreshing his skills, while he got up to speed with cloud computing. It enabled him to familiarize himself with the AWS way of working and their product range. Those three and half years took him into a lot of new areas. (5.18) Phil says that it sounds like Ian enjoys keeping his hand in from a technical perspective. Ian agrees, that is true, which is one of the reasons he enjoys working for AWS so much. Recently, they invested in AI and machine learning services. Just last year, they announced some robotics services. There is also Ground Station - a service for people who want to download data from their satellite infrastructure. So, there is plenty going on within the company that enables Ian to indulge his passion for new technologies.  (6.11) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? Ian says his worst moment was not a single incident, more of a challenging period in his career. Back in the 90s, he worked for a small hosting and internet access startup. They provided hosting, mainly for businesses like Channel 4 and the Dixon stores group. At the time, most companies did not have a website, so this was actually quite exciting work. In 1998, the Dixons group asked them to set up and run their new Freeserve internet service. It was an innovative service that grew at a phenomenal rate. At the time, everyone was still using dial-up. There was no cloud computing either. So, every time a customer signed up they needed server space and the company was constantly running more telecommunications links to the building. Unsurprisingly, Ian and everyone else at the company ended up working ridiculous hours. It was an exciting time that opened up all kinds of opportunities for Ian, but it was also very stressful. (9.14) Was there anything in particular that you learned from that experience? One of the things Ian learned from the experience was how to recruit. The phenomenal rate at which the company grew meant that Ian was constantly recruiting new staff. It was a relatively new business which still had a startup mentality, so everything was very fluid. Recruiting the right people at a fast enough rate was a challenge, especially because the roles were so blurred. There was a lot going on, which meant people just had to muck in to get everything done. In that situation getting the onboarding right proved critical. New staff needed to have the right support. Without it they could not settle in quickly and become viable members of the team. It was also important from a retention point of view. Even today, when it comes to recruitment, Ian’s focus is on getting the onboarding process right. He knows from experience with the right support new people quickly ramp up to full capacity and are far less likely to leave after just a few months. Making sure that people feel like they have got the right kind of support around them is really important in leadership. (10.44) – Phil asks Ian what his best career moment was. Again, for Ian it was not a single moment, more a period in his career that he has found to be fulfilling. Right now, he is particularly enjoying the rate at which AWS is innovating and introducing new services. For example, in 2017, they introduced 1400 new services and features. This astonishing rate of change ensures that Ian gets to talk to people about a huge range of services, technologies and innovations. He is also lucky enough to be able to find out, first hand, how people are using these new services and features. All of which he enjoys and loves speaking about. In the past year alone, he has run sessions about the application of AI and machine learning. He also delivered the keynote speech at an O’Rilley AI conference, in London. In April, he gave the closing keynote speech at a major AWS summit that was held in Singapore. At that event, he got to live demo a chatbot. During his presentation, the audience interacted with chatbots using text and Facebook Messenger. The really cool thing about the whole experience was that Ian was the one who had written and deployed the code being used. Naturally, that experience is one that he views as a career highlight. He has also really enjoyed building out the AWS team. Seeing people that he has recruited grow and go on to bigger and better things is something that Ian takes a lot of pleasure from. (13.12) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Ian knows that the services AWS provides are going to free up organizations, so that they can focus their cash and time on being truly innovative. There is not going to be a need for the next generation of developers to spend their early career doing repetitive tasks. For example, in the 90s Ian’s team would spend every Monday provisioning infrastructure. Now, that same task can be done with just a few clicks using the AWS console. Freeing up people’s time in this way is going to have a hugely positive impact. It will leave developers free to be more creative and truly innovate. This means that all kinds of problems can be solved using the vast range of technologies that are now available. (15.22) – What drew you to a career in IT? To answer that one Ian has to go right back to when he was a child. Back then, his father ran a training program for teachers. He produced all of the written training materials using a hand-cranked duplicating machine. At the time, photocopiers were too big and expensive for small organizations to own and run. So, when he discovered he could computerize things, he did. Ian witnessed the way this transformed his father’s business. That in turn sparked his interest in IT. At school he got involved in technology in every way he could. So, it was only natural for him to study computer science at university. (17.09) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Ian says he would not call it advice as such, more encouragement, which he listened to. While he was working for Planet Online, they were taken over by a telecommunications firm. For Ian, this meant a change in direction, a big one. His new boss saw something in him, so set about persuading him to get involved in the process of finding, assessing and acquiring other telecoms firms. In that role he had to deal with the CEOs of some very large companies, something Ian did not think he was equipped to handle. It was his boss who persuaded him that he could and he was right. In that role, Ian grew in confidence and acquired a whole new skill set. (18.27) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Ian says that he would focus on software rather than infrastructure. Now that infrastructure is an area of diminishing impact. Today, it is all about software. He would seek to learn a range of languages and become a true software engineer rather than just a developer. Having the ability to jump across different programming languages and a strong understanding of the foundations would be his aim. Ian believes anyone that is new to the industry will succeed if they take this approach. (19.45) – What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Ian main task, right now, is growing his team. In fact, that is one of the reasons he wanted to join Phil for his podcast. Currently, he is recruiting for all kinds of roles, positions he is very keen to fill. He is currently hiring managers and specialist evangelists for various domains. So, his immediate goal is to fill those positions, which are available in AWS offices across the world. Ian will also be focusing on a couple of other AWS projects that are yet to be announced. He will also be hiring for those, a bit later in the year (20.36) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Ian says for him the ability to communicate has proved invaluable. Being able to listen properly and understand what the customer wants and distil it down to its essential has really helped him in his career. Ian points out that you also need to be an effective outbound communicator. It is very important to maintain high standards of public communication and to be able to adapt your message to suit your audience. (21.51) – Phil asks Ian to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. “Don’t be afraid to try out new things.” Apply for new roles even if you do not have all of the qualifications and experience asked for. Ian says that when AWS recruits, the specification they come up with is more of a wish list than anything else. They really don’t expect to find many candidates that tick all of the boxes. That is the case for most organizations. So, it is always worth just applying for roles that you think might be just a little bit beyond you. BEST MOMENTS: (4.48) IAN – "It was a great opportunity to come back to software development, and rediscover some of the more technical aspects” ( 10.32) PHIL – "I think the onboarding process and just embedding people into a team, making them feel part of what's happening, is vital." (11.09) IAN – “In 2017, we released over 1400 new services and features. That's a huge beat rate of new innovation. " (12.48) IAN – “It’s really awesome to see the talent that you've bought into the organization progressing through the senior IT levels." (15.03) IAN – “As software continues to evolve, the services will get more and more sophisticated," (21.45) IAN – “Those are really important skills in my view, communications inbound and outbound.” CONTACT IAN: Twitter: https://twitter.com/IanMmmm @IanMmmm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imassingham

No sooner had we pressed "stop" on recording Wednesday's show than all sorts of bizarre events unfolded. Brexit cheerleader Paul Dacre announced his retirement from editing the Daily Mail, David Davis went through another pantomime resignation threat… and Boris Johnson's attempts to get sacked reached new heights of absurdity. "Pro bono publico, no meltdown" – really?So Ian and producer Andrew headed to London's lovely Hyde Park (pubs are too noisy) to quickly get it all down so you don't have to wait a week. Forgive our dodgy sound quality – we thought you'd want it as quick as we could get it to you. Enjoy. "Confidence is a preference for what is known as… PARK CAST." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Happy New Year everyone! If you or someone you know has had a diagnosis of Multiple sclerosis or any autoimmune disorder, this is the episode for you.  It took my wife and I a plane, 3 trains and an Uber to get to Dr. Stancic in Ramsay, NJ, but we made it. Dr. Stancic is so great, not only was our conversation fantastic, but she was kind enough to move a patient on her schedule just so we could fit in this interview. The Ian Cramer Podcast is 1 year old and I will continue to bring you conversations with doctors and scholars to make the world a better, healthier place. We've averaged about 1000 listens per episode. Which is great for the first year. We have 15 proud patrons of the podcast, and they deserve a special thank you. And so if I'm doing my math right, that's 1.5% of my listener base. As I've said in the past, this podcast is free and always will be because I feel that this information is too important to withhold from people. But I'd like you all to be aware that for the end listener, it's free, but behind the scenes in reality, it's not. There are many expenses associated with the making and production of the podcast. In the spirit of transparency and greater understanding, allow me to explain.          I have a full time job and this podcast is a passionate side hustle. At this point, 100% of what I earn from patron contributions is recycled back into the podcast. So Ian, what do you spend the money on? Good question. First are podcast website hosting fees.  I advertise the podcast to get the episodes in front of more eye-balls or in front of more ears, which costs money. I'm also constantly trying to upgrade my equipment to make the production quality better, which costs money. I pay for the software that I use for my Facebook Live sessions and Ask the Doc sessions. Not to mention the time, reading, research and prep that goes into each podcast.      Now, if at this point, you're rolling your eyes, I promise to only make this type of extended soap box speech once per year, but I want you to understand that if you're listening to these podcasts, you are a part of this community! And you can play a role in supporting me and my work to progress this message to change the world around us for the better. If you've been listening to this podcast for a period of time and if they add value to your life, if they're educational, or have made you healthier or if you've implemented something into your lifestyle that you've heard from this podcast, ...consider how much that's worth to you and consider supporting the podcast. This is just a friendly reminder, not a order…this is not an ultimatum.      On the flip side, there are conditions in which you should not donate. #1- If you don't enjoy it. In which case I would ask you 'Why are you still listening' and #2: If donating would involve making material sacrifices. You must put yourself and your family first.     With your support, I'm able to spend more time creating and spreading meaningful content that can positively impact people's lives. Will you help me and those around you become healthier? Become a part of my creative community, join me on Patreon and lets make the world a healthier place     Details of how all this works can be found on Patreon.com/IanCramerPodcast. That link can be found in the show notes. Or a couple of other ways you can support this podcast and the message that it's trying to spread is writing a review on the iTunes store or sharing the podcast with your friends and on social media. I appreciate your support and your time. And if you have any questions, please reach out to me. Contact information and my social media links can be found on my website Plant-basedCyclist.com.

Christy Clark has announced she’s resigning as leader of the BC Liberals – and she did it while we were editing our most recent podcast! So Ian & Scott are back to look forward to what this means for the future of the BC Liberal Party and the state of politics in the province. The post Emergency pod: Christy Clark resigns appeared first on PolitiCoast.

This Episode's Focus On StrengthsIan Altman joined me to bust the myth that you're always selling ideas at work. In this episode, you'll see instead how you should stop trying to persuade and convince. Stop trying to push your solution. Stop focusing on your value. And start focusing on their problems. Start serving them from their perspective. What You'll LearnIt's only after standing in their shoes that you can understand if you're a good fit anyway. You'll see how flipping your perspective can avert disaster and ensure results. Ian shares wisdom that will help you: Present to senior executive in a way that feels relevant to them. Understand the ancient, mythical creature called empathy. Stop selling your ideas. Stop persuading. Stop trying to convince. He offers you a better way. Get your customer to convince you that their issues are painful enough that they're worth solving. Hear the song "Dancin' In The Streets" in your head for the rest of your day today. Focus on fit--and whether you have solutions for problems your audience cares about. Changing your finish line with clients to the results the other party is looking for rather than the moment you get your "yes". Get more high-five-worthy moments with clients. Find out why you should stop asking, "who else needs to be involved in this decision?" Get a Quadrant more magic that the ones from Gartner: 1) Issue  2) Impact & Importance  3) Results 4) Others Impacted Avoid feeling like you're making ATM transactions with your customer. See how Ian grew and sold businesses that impressed even Dr. Evil. Resource of the Episode Check out the book Same Side Selling when you're ready to go deeper.   Read the Full Conversation:   Lisa Cummings: Today you're going to get tips for selling your ideas at work - and how to do that while using your strengths. Lisa Cummings: If you've ever felt frustrated when the person you're trying to influence just doesn't get it and you feel totally stuck and things like arm wrestling and Roshambo are the only things you've come to as a way to end the stalemate. Well, if you've ever wished for it to be easier than that, you're going to love our guest today. Ian Altman is joining to help you sell your ideas at work. So I first met Ian at an event for public speakers and he reeled me right in. He has this really easy communication style. He fills up the room with his big old smile and intelligence and wit, and you can get a piece of this personality every week on Forbes. If you read his articles there and then there's a book, Same Side Selling his book is just excellent and although I'm not going to give it away for you here in the intro and spoil your read, I'll tell you that it will flip your views on a lot of things you've been taught your whole career. So after today's chat you'll see why people like Seth Godin and Dan Pink recommend Ian. So Ian, thanks for joining. Ian Altman: Thanks, Lisa. Lisa Cummings: Alrighty. And as you know, the show is all about exploring your natural talents, how to find them, how to leverage them, what it's like when you actually do that. So if you think back over your personal career, can you kick us off with just sharing one of your favorite peak experiences where you were personally selling your ideas at work? And you totally nailed it. Ian Altman: I can probably think of more examples where I didn't nail it. And that's the thing that I think for most people to understand is that it's natural for us to stumble when we're trying to sell stuff. And I think that were way more successful when we're trying to solve things for other people and most people have a natural ability or natural strength to try and help solve challenges for other people. And this notion of selling becomes really uncomfortable. And so most of the experiences I look back on when we were really successful either selling things to clients or selling things internally, all we really trying to do with solving the underlying problem for somebody and sometimes they got paid for that. Sometimes we were just gaining adoption by other people and getting their buy-in to our ideas. But it mostly came down to helping the other person to understand how what we were really trying to do was help them. Lisa Cummings: I really like that because people get so scared when I say, here's something like selling your ideas. Even if they're not thinking about themselves in a sales role, they get a little bit nervous with you flipping that around and just saying, hey look, you can get in the shoes of your customer and do something for the other person. Solve something for the other. You can actually totally nail it even when your whole approach is all about them. Ian Altman: That's absolutely it. I mean, I think about, let's say you're an HR professional and HR professionals trying to convince the senior executive they should do something that's in the best interest of their business and usually the HR person feels like they're on this on unattainable mission to convince this person they should do something that the HR person knows is actually in the best interest of the business and what if instead they said, look, you know, I know we've been struggling with retention. I know I've been struggling to attract the right people and I've come up with some strategies that will help us do that better. Now all of a sudden, the senior executive says, Oh, well what? You should totally do that. Why didn't you start yesterday? But if you said, oh, here's this training program that I want to do, the senior executive business sitting around saying, man, I wonder if we can do more training, training and be good. If we just took all of the people were paying and had them spend dedicated time in a training session, that would be awesome. That's not what's going on, but if you can present your ideas in ways that get you and the other person on the same side trying to solve the same puzzle metaphorically, and obviously it leads to less adversarial tension because you're both trying to achieve the same thing. Lisa Cummings: You have that concept in your book, right - the adversarial trap. If you applied it in your workplace, the same side thing would absolutely apply. How do they do more of that? How do they understand the other side so that they can be more influential with their ideas? Ian Altman: Well, there's a concept that isn't new and I certainly didn't invent it called empathy and so and it sounds funny to mention that way, but usually what happens is we as professionals are so focused on what we're trying to accomplish, then it's easy for us to forget the other person's perspective. So for example, when I'm teaching people about sales and selling, what I always ask them is, “okay, so what do you think is going through your customer's mind right now? What do you think your customers thinking and feeling right now?” And the answer I usually get from salespeople is one of two answers. Either I have no idea or the compound I have no idea, and why would I care. The most in the most advanced people that people are the most successful? I say, what do you think your customers thinking at that moment? And they'll talk for 10 minutes about exactly what's going through their client's mind and you start to realize that the people who were most successful have that empathy. They can see themselves in their customers' shoes, in the other party's shoes. They know exactly how they're feeling and then their co building a plan to achieve success instead of, I'm here, let me force this on you. Oh, you don't like it? Maybe I'll say it louder and then that'll work and it just doesn't play out very well. Lisa Cummings: Let's take the concept of empathy. Now that we're remembering that exists, right? And say, okay, they are beginning to plan for this conversation. They're going to focus on the fit and understand how to persuade the customer or future customer to do business with them. One thing I hear people feel tough in the reconciliation is they think, okay, how am I going to incorporate my unique talents and strenghs into this relationship and make it all about them at the same time? How do you pull that together when it feels like a paradox? Ian Altman: Well, there's a few different things. One is that we have to be careful that we're not trying to persuade. In fact, what I would say is any time you're trying to exercise influence, what we're really trying to get to is the truth as quickly as possible because let's say for example, that using that, that silly HR example I gave, let's say the other person really isn't that interested in retention recruitment. They're not really concerned about their individuals on their team. Then they're probably not what you tell them. They're not going to be sold on this idea because they really don't care. So the first thing we have to do is get the other people to convince us that they have something that's worth solving and that they have whatever their issue is that you're talking about, they feel has enough impact. Is this important to solve, to make it worth your time to help them find a solution? Once you get to that point where now you're both in agreement that this is worth solving, now all you're doing is saying, okay, the first thing you're doing in terms of fit is saying, am I well suited to help them solve this? And if so, now I just have to illustrate how and why I am, so part of it comes down to you may have a disconnect where someone is asking you to do something you're not really good at, and that's when you need to be honest and say, you know what? We may need some other help for this because otherwise you end up putting yourself in a position where you're probably going to fail and we don't like to fail, and the people working with us don't like to see us fail. Lisa Cummings: It's big. Your concept that, really, your goal is not to persuade. You need to understand. And if you can't be convinced and they're not convinced that this is a fit, then you'd be a fool to move forward. That's a really powerful shift in thinking right there. Ian Altman: You're absolutely right. Here's the interesting part of it is that when I'm coaching people on the selling side, the hardest thing to an understanding as they say, so what if I talked to the client and it doesn't seem like their issue is that impactful for them and is that important to solve. Then what do I do? And I say, well then first you can share third party stories to say, well, here's why this thing is important to other people. And they still might say, yeah, you know, I can see why that's important other people, but it's really not to me, and if they don't get it, then don't try and be a missionary trying to convert these people to your way of thinking. Just realize that, okay, this probably isn't going to work out so well, right? It's just not a good fit because even on the selling side, people will say, well, so I talked to this client, men, I know we could help them, but they don't seem to care and they're not really interested in this. What should I do? Like what do I do next? I said, you move on. You could have someone who actually cares. Lisa Cummings: Let's say you’ve focused on the fit and the fit is there, and then you're in the deeper relationship with the client and the initial ideas there. How do you avoid making it feel like a one-time transaction with them? Ian Altman: In what I teach, we spend a lot of time talking about the idea of results. What I mean by that is that, so let's say, you know, pick any scenario. You're trying to get someone to agree to do something just because they've agreed to do something and exchange whatever the currency is. So if you're selling something, they exchange money. If they're investing in a program internally, it might be investing their time. Just because they actually complete the transaction doesn't mean they've achieved success. So usually what happens is the person who's trying to do the persuading, the person who's doing the “selling” of their ideas often sees the commitment, the contract, the sale, the decision as the finish line. But the other party doesn't see it that way. The other party sees the decision as an incidental step toward achieving the results they're looking for. And so the way that you focus on making sure that people see the bigger picture is now what you do is you ask them, okay, let's say that we started this program. How would we know six months out, 18 months out whether or not we were successful, what would we notice? What would we measure to let us know that we were successful? And now the other person you're talking to feels like you have the same goal as them, which is to achieve the results, not just get the decision or the sale. Lisa Cummings: I love the questions. What would we notice? How do you go about getting inside so that you can notice together? And so what I mean by that is a lot of times they'll ask about the measure of success and then in six months they check in and say, you know, how did that metric turn out? And let's see if the trend line is up into the right. So how do you get the relationship rolling in a way that you can be noticing those things together as a relationship rather than a check-in? Ian Altman: I love that question because it demonstrates that you're focused on actually them achieving those results because it's not just how do we know now you're saying how are we actually going to measure it together? And so that dialogue says, not only. So how would we know if we were successful? And someone says, oh, this would be it. Then you'll ask a question like, so what might happen that would lead to us not achieving those results? And now the person says, for example, let's say it was a training program you were selling to them and the person says, well, I mean, I guess if people didn't come to the program and then if they didn't commit the time for follow through and reinforcement. Okay, what are some of the things that we can do together to make sure that those things don't happen? Because obviously we want to achieve success and they usually scratch their head a little bit, especially if their scalp is dry. Ian Altman: And then, all of a sudden now you're building a strategy and a plan together that keeps you involved going forward and it's easy for you to say, look, so it sounds like somebody that's on a regular basis how about I check in with you in three or four weeks and just make sure we're accomplishing those things because my sense is if we're accomplishing those every three to four weeks, then we're probably going to see those results six months out. Now, if you're constantly involved in ensuring that your partner in essence is successful, then you have an ongoing dialogue and anytime something comes up, you're the first person that's right there. And when your clients see you deliver amazing results, that can be an internal, external client. Now all of a sudden they're way more inclined to work with you because not only did they buy your idea or whatever it is your selling, but you actually helped them ensure that they got results. And thankfully so many people miss that, that when you do it, it seems extraordinary. Even though all you're doing is just delivering what you said you would. Lisa Cummings: Now, how does this dynamic shift when you're doing the same thing we just talked about and it's the internal senior executive you've been having this conversation with? Ian Altman: It doesn't change; honestly it doesn't change at all. I mean that's. That's the whole beauty of this is that it's not so much a sale because keep in mind I'm trying to do is get them to do, be on the same page with us on the same side in terms of what we're trying to accomplish and sometimes that means that we need to move them closer to us and sometimes we need to move ourselves closer to them, but it's a collaborative process and whether that's an internal senior executive who you're partnering with to accomplish something or someone externally; think about it. The COO of the company or the CEO, do they want to spend time with the people who get their buy in on an idea and then don't deliver? Or do they want to constantly go back to the person who not only executed but ensure that the business got the results that we're looking for, so those are the people who advance the most through their career. Those are the people who excel. Those are the people who get those promotions. Those are the salespeople who are at the top of their game because it's so easy for their customer internally or externally to trust that they're going to see results with them. Lisa Cummings: You brought all kinds of layers to my mind here about the idea of people wanting to get promoted and advance their career and the idea of getting closer to that person that they've been doing this work with. I tell my audience all the time to listen hard, to understand the other person's situation better, know what makes them tick, know what other options they have other than the choice that you've been talking about as you've gone through the process together and it's really difficult for people. It's like people go through their careers getting better and better at pontificating and kind of worse at really hearing what's going on with the other party. So if you apply all this stuff to just some sort of simple negotiation, let's say with an internal colleague at work, how do you craft some of those same side questions or the thought processes to be able to listen and hear them better? Ian Altman: A lot of it is having a structure around it. So on the selling side of the world, we break it down in these four quadrants. So what we say is that anytime we're speaking with somebody, we want to focus on the issue that they're facing, which would be, if you think about four quadrants, like a sheet of paper, you draw a vertical line down the center and horizontal line across. So now you have two squares in the top, two squares on the bottom, and the idea is that in the upper left you would write the word issue. In the upper right, you would write the words impact and importance. In the lower left, you'll write results in the lower right, you'll write others impacted and let me explain what's in each of those quadrants. So the issue is the surface level goal of the person you talked to. Ian Altman: So someone says, oh, we're looking to put in x, Y, z program into the business. Great. Now on the impact side, which the upper right, we're going to ask questions like, so what happens if we don't achieve that? What if we don't hit the deadline? What if this thing got deferred and we didn't accomplish it? Because what we're trying to figure out is what's the consequence to the organization of not solving that issue? Then in the lower left where we have results, we take notes that centered around how we're going to measure success together. So let's say we do this project six months after we're done, how are we going to know if we were successful? What are we going to see that we can measure that tells us both that we've achieved a high five worthy moment is I like to call it. So how do we know that we're both singing Kumbaya and dance in the streets? Because we did something amazing Lisa Cummings: That ear worm is going to be in my head all day long now. And everyone listening. “Dancing in the streets” Ian Altman: Then in the lower right, we put others impacted and the reason we put others is that, especially in sales and really in every type of business transaction, oftentimes what happens is we're dealing with one individual and we assume that they're the only person impacted. And then the 11th hour somebody gets inserted into the process we didn't even hear about and they derail the whole process. And we're like, man, what happened? Where this person come from? And if we said, well, who else is involved in the decision? You never get an honest answer because the person you're dealing with doesn't want you to think that they don't have full authority. But instead after you talk about impact and after you talk about results, if you say, well, so, so who else stands to lose the most? Would that impact you get those people? Okay, well who else is probably going to be most excited about these results? Ian Altman: And guess what? The people who are going to be impacted the most on the negative and the positive side, they're going to be involved with you like it or not, so you may as well figure that out early on in the process. Now in that upper right quadrant, that idea of impact and importance, the difference in impact and important is impact is kind of quantifiable measure of what happens if you don't solve it. Importance is a outcome of a simple question which is compared to other things on your plate. How important is it to solve this issue? And if someone tells you that it's not that important, don't waste your time on it because it's not important to them, then it doesn't need to be important to you. Lisa Cummings: I love this quadrant and there are so many pieces of depth in here. If you really dissect it and I hope everyone listening will go grab the book and see and be dissecting things as simple as that comment you just made about others and the typical question, who else needs to be involved in this decision that gets you nowhere and the way that you reframed that and gave alternative ways to get to the same thing that could completely kill your deal or make it great? You have so many nuances in the stuff that you just said that we could talk about for another hour. Ian Altman: Let me give you just one little, one little piece of perspective. When I asked him who else needs to be involved in this decision? My finish line is the decision. When I say who else stands the most to gain from these results, who else is going to want to put in their two cents into how we measure the results? Now I'm focused on the real end goal, which is the results and it's a much more comfortable question for the other person to answer because we're in alignment with what should be important to them Lisa Cummings: And once again it's because you framed the question in a way that it's something they care about instead of something that you care about. Ian Altman: When you say it that way, it's like, well, it sounds really obvious and it's amazing how few people do it this way. Lisa Cummings: I don't know that in all of the sales calls I've attended in my life, I've ever heard anyone frame it like that. There are so many nuggets of Ian Altman genius, that you'll get when you follow his work, so no one here would be surprised to hear that Ian, he started, he sold and grew companies worldwide to values have more than a billion dollars. That's like 1 billion with a b. So yes, I'm doing Austin powers thing with my fingers right now. Your contribution to this conversation is this great visual of the quadrant and mine is Austin Powers movie. He hit those numbers and did these genius brilliant billion dollar things by using the ideas that you started to learn about in this show. What’s the best way to connect with you and dive into your work? Ian Altman: The easiest way is if you just remember it grow my revenue. So on twitter it's growmyrevenue, the website is growmyrevenue.com, the podcast that launches starting the end of September is growmyrevenue business cast. And so, if you think “grow my revenue”, if that's important to you then I'm easy to find. My website is https://www.ianaltman.com/ Lisa Cummings: Easy. “Like Sunday morning guys”. Ian Altman: Oh no, we got all these musical things are going to be singing all day now. Lisa Cummings: I mean we're helping people dance in the streets. And it's a beautiful thing when you can have that magical moment. Yes. So thanks everyone for reading Lead Through Strengths. Remember that using your strengths at work makes you a stronger performer and now Ian has given you a way to also incorporate interests and strengths of your audience. So if you're always focused on fixing weaknesses at work or filling in these gaps are on the path of most resistance. So claim your talents and your clients and share them with the world.

So Ian (the CEOh-yeah!) and I sat down tonight to talk about a bunch of stuff, but ended up instead telling the story of the Tropical MBA internships and how we plan to scale it through our new [UPDATE (1/2015): now retired] job site, TropicalWorkForce.com. The purpose of the TWF is to connect location independent entrepreneurs with freelancers providing services or aspiring digital nomades. Right now there are a lot of services posted on there– all services are pre-qualified by yours truly. I know these people, so we aren’t dealing with complete strangers here. Our hope is to inspire our fellow location independent entrepreneurs to post about 1 internship opportunity a week– that would be about 50 next year. If we can’t meet that goal, I think Ian and I can help pad that stats by offering our own internship opportunities! We’ll also be posting our internships at TWF going forward. If you have any questions about the site, or suggestions as to how we can make it better, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Speaking of awesome– Tropical Talk Radio has been featured on iTunes and has already received 10 5-star reviews. I really appreciate you taking the time to review the show and help us grow our listenership! Ian and I love doing the show, and getting great reviews from you guys (plus critical suggestions via email!) keeps us motivated and pumped up to do the show.