Category: Blog Posts

Your Sacred Duty

“To whom much is given, much is required.” - Luke 12:48

Regardless of your faith system/worldview, the message of the above passage is universal. As leaders in this industry, we have been given much. I have a friend who regularly says, “If I had settled for my wildest dreams, I would have sold myself short.” I feel the exact same way. If that is true, then I am REQUIRED to pay it forward, even if I wasn’t in leadership.

Required

So what does the “REQUIRED” mean? You will have to figure that out for yourself. As for me, it means I owe it to the people that are counting on me, the people I lead, to give them my absolute, level best every single day. Regardless of my own personal circumstances. Regardless if I feel like it. Regardless if I am tired. Regardless if the last two people I tried to help didn’t listen. Regardless if people sometimes try to take advantage of me. Regardless if…

Hard Work

Being in leadership is not always puppy dogs kissing unicorns while under rainbows. In fact most of the time it is hard work. It is easy to get jaded at times and wonder if you are really making a difference. People let you down and no matter how hard you try, more of them than not, are going to fail out of the business. It is easy to start doubting your leadership ability when this happens.

It really doesn’t matter what has happened in the past. Because you have been given much, you are REQUIRED to give the person standing in front of you your very best effort.

What You Can Control

Let me be clear, you can’t make anyone be successful and you can’t make them fail. To think you can make someone successful is very grandiose thinking. What you can do is model the work, mindsets, and characteristics it takes to be successful.

The last time I checked, I can barely control my own success, let alone anyone else. All I can do is make sure that I give them the keys to the kingdom. Whether or not they choose to use them is on them.

If at the end of the day, I can honestly say, “I did absolutely everything I could to help them be successful,” I can sleep very easy. It is only when I give less than the REQUIRED effort that their lack of success gnaws at me.

Gut Check

20+ years ago, I was recruiting a gentleman by the name of Mike. I was incredibly excited about bringing him on. He knew everyone in his community and had the drive that I always look for. He had never been in insurance. In fact, for most of his career, he had been a youth pastor.

Mike asked me to sit down with his wife before they made their final decision. After the pleasantries were over, she looked me dead in the eye and asked me if I could guarantee her husband would be successful. I told her absolutely not.

I told her I wasn’t sure that I was going to be successful. I had just started less than a year before. I had opened several groups and made some decent money but I wasn’t sure I could even spell insurance yet.

I’ll never forget what I told her that day. I said, “I can’t promise you that Mike will be successful. But I can promise you this, Mike will never fail alone. If he is putting in the effort and doing what is necessary, I will be with him every step of the way.”

Animal

Mike was an animal. He would want to work WELL past 5:00 pm most days, which was fine. The challenge was that once we were done, I had over an hour to drive home…In the pouring rain. (I’m not kidding. We lived in Washington.) But I had made a promise that I would be there with him. I felt that it was my sacred duty to keep my word. I believed it was REQUIRED.

Mike’s insurance career has been (and still is) one of the biggest success stories I have ever seen. To be clear, Mike did the work. All I did was make sure that he knew I was in his corner and model what it took to be successful. If I’m being honest, Mike probably pushed me harder than I did him.

Mike also understands how much this business has given him. He get’s it. He has consistently helped others get started and modeled what it takes to be successful. I know Mike sleeps well at night knowing he has given what is REQUIRED of him.

Your Turn

What Is REQUIRED Of You Today?

Leave your answers below or shoot me a quick email to tim@successisvoluntary.com

Would you also forward this to every leader you know? I need the reminder of what is required of me, and they might too.

Jonny Burgess – SIV #077 Shownotes

I love Jonny Burgess! Even if he did try to get me fired.

I first had Jonny on the SIV podcast back in 2014. He had just written and published his book You Can Too. The book details his start in the Voluntary Benefits arena and the challenges he had to overcome. Apparently, his kids wanted to eat every day…  More importantly, Jonny gave his readers a step-by-step outline on how to be successful too. Hence the name of the book.

Jonny first appeared on the SIV podcast back in 2014. He had just written and published his book You Can Too. The book details his start in the Voluntary Benefits arena and the challenges he had to overcome. (Apparently, his kids wanted to eat every day… lol). More importantly, Jonny gave his readers a step-by-step outline on how to be successful too. Hence the name of the book.

How the nearly getting fired part works is that Jonny was, and still is, representing Aflac. In his book he talks extensively and exclusively of his work with Aflac. He went so far as to put a picture of the Aflac duck on the cover. He also received an endorsement from the Aflac President.

So far so good, right? Well…. here’s the thing. At the time I was a corporate employee of Aflac’s biggest competitor. I put a picture of Jonny’s book (with the duck) on the Success Is Voluntary website. My company lost its mind and threatened termination if I continued the SIV website and podcast. They believed I was “training competitors how to sell Voluntary Benefits.” I reminded them that Success Is Voluntary is carrier agnostic. They didn’t care. So as I wrote about in my blog article “I’m Back!” on January 1, 2018 I’m ashamed I caved. You can read the article here: https://successisvoluntary.com/im-back/

That’s all ancient history and I’m glad to no longer have to answer to Corporate America and work with shortsighted people.

Fast forward to around Thanksgiving of 2018. I came home to find that a book had been delivered. That’s not that unusual as I read a book a week. What was unusual is that I didn’t remember ordering a book. I hadn’t. It was a copy of Jonny’s new book: You Still Can Too. I had no idea he had written it. It was signed and contained a note that I was mentioned in the book! In his book, Jonny mentioned this very podcast and encouraged anyone in the VB arena to listen. Thank you Jonny for your kind words.

Things Jonny And I Talked About

  • He had no plan B when he started.
  • He had 8 kids and a mortgage payment of $5,000 per month, yet never missed a payment.
  • He is more excited about VB today than he has ever been.
  • You must make your sales presentation real simple, then lather, rinse, repeat.
  • His employer presentation lasts 4-5 minutes.
  • You must get the shelf space first and then build from there.
  • How to create a “milk run” of 200 clients.
  • Why you should borrow the prospect’s pen.
  • How to create urgency.
  • Why working with brokers is becoming critical.

Jonny’s Billboard: The tragedy is not that you aimed too high and missed. It’s that you aimed too low and hit.

The Books We Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Success Principles – Jack Canfield

When God Winks At You – Squire Rushnell

If it’s going to be, It’s up to me! – Robert Schuler

You Can Too – Jonny Burgess

You Still Can Too – Jonny Burgess

Where To Connect With Jonny

Email: jburgessrei@yahoo.com

Cell Phone: (603) 264-0961

NEXT WEEK

Social Media Guru, Alex Lombard is going to drop some serious knowledge on the SIV Tribe!
Don’t you dare miss it!

Daniel Blue – It’s Your Money – SIV #076 Shownotes

I don’t know about you, but if I’m being completely honest and transparent, I haven’t done a very good job saving for retirement during my career. About 7-8 years ago I got serious and started to find ways to invest in my future. After talking to this week’s podcast guest, Daniel Blue, I realized that there was/is a different approach that might be better than the traditional “just invest in mutual funds and keep it there until you retire” as a strategy.

My guess is that you probably haven’t heard about the strategies Daniel talked about during his interview. I know I hadn’t. Please hear me clearly, I am not even close to being a financial advisor. Having said that, I think you might want to explore some of the things Daniel suggests. You might also want to take notes. If you don’t take notes, and you end up broke at retirement… That’s on you

Things Daniel And I Talked About

  • He is the embodiment of the American dream.
  • He is a college dropout and has been in sales his whole life.
  • Why the public school system should teach about money.
  • His opioid addiction and how he has overcome it through recovery.
  • His company Quest Education is the 296th fastest growing company on the Inc. 5000.
  • Eat your own cooking.
  • The importance of measuring EVERYTHING in sales.
  • Numbers don’t lie.
  • Create and stick to a budget.Make sure you and your significant other are on the same page when it comes to money. (What are your needs vs. wants?)
  • If you are having money challenges, you need to make more money… (Duh!)
  • It’s not smart to have money in low-interest investments when you have high-interest credit card debt.
  • The financial world wants to make sure you leave your money in longterm investments because they get paid for “money under management.”
  • How a solo/self-directed 401(k) works and why it might be the right vehicle for 1099 employees or small business owners.
  • Inside a solo/self-directed 401(k) you can own things other than stocks, such as property.

Daniel's Billboard: Your money, your choice, your quest.

The Books We Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins

 

The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss

 

Where To Connect With Daniel

His website: https://www.yourquest.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-blue-5b1339113/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourQuestNow/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourquested

NEXT WEEK

Jonny Burgess returns! Jonny's first episode probably generated the most feedback of any episode. Since then his business has exploded and I can't wait to show you why.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

Elizabeth Hale – Protect Your Profit – SIV #075 Shownotes

Not going to lie, I am NOT a fan of the IRS. We have tangled more than once and surprisingly I have yet to win… Today’s guest Elizabeth Hale is a CPA that specializes in business accounting. She is definitely a fantastic resource for the self-employed. Elizabeth has a passion for helping businesses protect their profit through multiple avenues, not the least of which is helping them avoid unnecessary taxation. I have run my own businesses for 25 years and thought I had a pretty good handle on tax strategies. Elizabeth gave me (and you) a Master Class. If you don’t get out something to take notes on, you deserve every single penny you are going to pay in taxes this year. But maybe you don’t feel the need to save money on your taxes. If that’s true, please make your checks payable to the Tim Martin retirement fund…

Things elizabeth And I Talked About

  • Her start in the family restaurant business.
  • Just because there is money in the checking account doesn’t mean that things are on track financially in your business.
  • Time is actually a financial asset.
  • Why you MUST set aside money aside for taxes.
  • How you structure your business (sole proprietor, LLC, etc.) can dramatically impact your tax liability.
  • You actually make money by hiring someone to handle non-revenue generating activities.
  • How Process Street can help you create checklists for employees.
  • Why “benchmarking” is so important.
  • Why you would want to file an extension.
  • Preserve time you can go back.
  • Fund retirement before the end of the extension.
  • Amend previous year’s returns.
  • Interest the IRS charges may be less than any other financing.
  • Other strategies to increase profitability.
  • Ongoing training of your employees.
  • Keeping employees engaged.
  • Looking at ALL overhead expenses carefully.Limiting discretionary expenses.
  • The 2018 tax break doesn’t mean larger refunds.
  • To avoid overwhelm at tax time:
    • Get a simple accounting software system (she recommends QuickBooks Online) and keep it up to date
    • Get a separate bank account and credit card just for the business. (Don’t comingle funds!)
  • Avoid the challenges of writing off meal and entertainment expenses by buying gift cards for YOU to use.

Elizabeth's Billboard:
Protect Your profit!

The Books We Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Leadership and Self Deception – The Arbinger Institute

Good to Great – Jim Collins

 

Traction – Gino Wickman

Protect Your Profit – Elizabeth Hale

 

Where To Connect With Elizabeth

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethhalecpa/

Her website: https://www.eecpa.com/

NEXT WEEK

Join me again next week when I bring on retirement specialist Daniel Blue. I promise he is going to blow your mind! At least he did mine.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

Ken Coleman – Focus On The 5 – SIV #074 Shownotes

"40% of millionaires are 1st generation immigrants." - Ken Coleman

I met Ken through a series of events and I am so thankful to connect with him. He has challenged my thinking and I’m relatively sure he will yours as well. I’m really interested in finding out if you are a 5% er. Leave a comment below or shoot me an email to tim@successisvoluntary.com I know you are probably sick of hearing me say this, but you might want to take some notes… Of course, you don’t have to. Taking notes is voluntary… but so is success. Remember, you don’t have to be all fancy about it and write your notes in a bound leather journal. Just grab a brown paper bag and some blue crayons and let’s go to work.

Things Ken And I Talked About

  • Most people go right because most people go right.
  • Adversity creates tenacity.
  • DNA determines much more than hair color, height, etc.
  • Founders of companies are generally 5%ers.
  • CEOs are generally 30%ers.
  • Our country was born from 5%ers.
  • Learning what your two God-given talents are, being thankful and then letting God use them in service of others.

Ken's Billboard:
"Are you the best set of pliers?"

The Books We Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Focus On The Five – Ken Coleman

Where To Connect With Elizabeth

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethhalecpa/

Her website: https://www.eecpa.com/

NEXT WEEK

Freaking out about taxes? You will want to join me next week when I have Elizabeth Hale, CPA on the podcast. Elizabeth specializes in helping small business owners and the self-employed increase their profitabilty while reducing their tax bill. Sounds good to me!!!

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

What Makes You So Special?

You are special, right?

“What makes you so special?” It’s a question that is asked of high-performance salespeople all the time.

Of course, it never is actually asked like that. It usually sounds more like, “What is the secret to your success?” Sometimes it is asked with honest curiosity. More often though it is asked with an underlying current of jealousy. As in, “I’m smarter than you. More educated than you. Why are you more successful than I am? There has to be a reason…” But people can’t just come out and say that  of course, so they ask, “What’s your secret?”

You Can’t Hack Everything

Even if the person asking the question has the purest of intentions, they seldom like the answer. We live in a microwave world. Very few people have the patience to consistently work hard for success and understand it doesn’t just happen overnight.

Instead, we want to hack everything.  If you Google the phrase “Life Hacks” you will get +/- 10,500,000 results. We want hacks to improve our health (well besides eating right and exercise. Ain’t nobody got time for that.) Hacks for shredding chicken (seriously watch this video it works!) We even want to hack how to hang all of our tank tops on one hanger (I can’t make this stuff up.)  In a time where everything seems to be “hackable”, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that success is not.

I have been to about 50 sales conferences in my career. One of the most popular sessions at each of these conferences is when a panel of high achievers is asked to share the things that have led to their success. I have had the opportunity to personally facilitate several of these panels.  The things the panelists share are never earth-shattering or particularly novel. There is one thing that consistently stands out to me at every one of these events.  The high performers consistently work hard…. gasp! In that phrase “consistently work hard”, the word consistently is as important as hard.

During the five year period, I was running a sales organization of approximately 600 insurance agents, Bruce Tunze won the Agent of the Year award all five times.

  • Every single time he was asked to give an “acceptance speech.”
  • Every single time he stated that the secret of his success was he just went to work every day.
  • Every single time he said, “If I can do it, so can you.”
  • Every single time a majority of the audience thought he was holding back his secrets.
  • Every single time they wanted his success hack.

Bruce never did give them a hack (one doesn’t exist) but he did give them the answer. An answer that they couldn’t recognize because it didn’t look sexy. It looked like hard work…. and consistency…. and longevity.

Bruce and I have at least one thing in common. If we can be successful in this business, so can you.

So?

Are you willing to consistently do the hard work? Are you willing to consistently improve your skills and learn your craft? Are you willing to GO TO WORK EVERY DAY? Are you willing to consistently embrace the grind? Are you willing to consistently do what it takes to stand on stage and have people ask, “What makes YOU so special?” When you get that chance I hope you will remember this blog article, laugh, and shoot me an email telling me that your answer was, “I just go to work every day.”

Your Turn

What are you doing consistently that will assure your success? Let me know by leaving your answer below.

Andy Neary – Shift Happens – SIV #073 Shownotes

"Before you shift your mindset, you have to clear your mindsh*t." - Andy Neary

Today’s guest, Andy Neary, was introduced to me by our mutual friend and frequent podcast guest Eric Silverman. I’ve got to tell you, I loved doing this interview. On the Success Is Voluntary podcast we often talk about mindset or we do a deep dive on technical skills/strategies. I’m not sure we have ever done both in the same episode (at least to the level we did here.)

The only way you won’t get something out of today’s podcast is if you don’t listen. The best way to get the most value out of your time listening is to take some notes. Here’s what I would encourage you to do: hit pause, get a pen and something to write on and let’s get to work.

Things andy And I Talked About

  • How his mindset hindered his professional baseball career.
  • The Affordable Care Act almost drove him out of the business.
  • We need younger people to join the industry. (Listen to Why Insurance Is Sexy a podcast we published in 2014.)
  • You can let failure be your judge or let it be your teacher.
  • We don’t have an insurance problem. We have a risk management problem. The 3 areas of risk an employer must solve are:
    • Financial Risk
    • Catastrophic Risk
    • Healthcare Purchasing

Andy’s Billboard: Just. Be. You.

The Books We Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Breaking Through The Status Quo – Andy Neary

The Alchemist  – Paulo Coleho

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind – T. Harv Eker

Moving from Models to Mindsets – John Reid

Where To Connect With andy

Where To Connect With Andy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyneary333/

His website: AndyNeary.com

Instagram: AndyNeary333

NEXT WEEK

Join me again next week when I bring on Author John Reid. I promise he is going to challenge your thought process around sales systems. At least he did mine.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

How Do You Know?

Seriously...

In sales, we often are so driven by emotion that we don’t stop and really analyze what is going on in our business. We just bebop through our day doing the activities we think will drive our business forward. We end the day on a high. We have accomplished everything on our task list. We made two DM presentations that we feel really good about. We even found time to make a bunch of new contacts that we are convinced will turn into new customers. It seems our business is about ready to explode. Well to borrow a phrase from ESPN commentator Lee Corso,  “Not so fast my friend!”

Reality Check! You Might be Fooling Yourself.

Let’s break down your “GREAT DAY” one result at a time:

Your to-do list

Your to-do/task list for the day is completely pristine. You have checked off every single item. Fantastic, right? As long as the things that were on your list were goal achieving. Was picking up the dry cleaning on your list? Did you do it at 2:30 in the afternoon? Ouch! What opportunities for prospecting did you give up by wasting 30 minutes going to the cleaners? Yes, it took you 30 minutes to pick up your dry cleaning. No seriously… even if your prior appointment was right around the corner from your cleaners, you lost 30 full minutes of productivity! Brain science shows us clear and compelling evidence that every time we switch tasks, it takes us 20 minutes to get back to full productivity. Oh yeah, you probably took at least 5 minutes in the store. And then as long as you were sitting in the parking lot you probably checked your email on your phone. And then…. I take it back. You probably wasted 45 minutes of green time. At the end of the day did you do things right, or did you do the right things? Did you use your time wisely?

SOOO… How do you know?

I suggest conducting a time audit. Take an old fashioned piece of paper and break down every hour you are working into 15-minute increments. Then set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes. Whenever your timer goes off, write down what you were doing in the preceding 15 minutes. Do this for 3 days in the same week and then analyze the results. I promise it will be incredibly instructive as to your use of time.

Your Sales Presentations

The two DM presentations you gave were awesome. They both gave you incredible feedback!

The first DM told you they definitely want to move forward. They need to check on a few things and will call you to work out the details. You are so excited to have “closed the deal” that you don’t realize that it isn’t closed at all. Did they sign the paperwork/contract? Do you have an installation or enrollment date scheduled? Is there a clear future of how the rollout is going to look? Have they understood and accepted every condition (in writing) for moving forward? Unless you can answer yes to all of these questions you really don’t have a sale. It MIGHT turn into a sale, but right at this moment, you have absolutely no way of knowing that.

SOOO… How do you know?

You can only know by nailing down every single detail necessary to move forward before ending your presentation. If you walk out the door without the details taken care of you will be hunting down your DM forever, even to the point of being obnoxious. Not very exciting now is it.

The other DM presentation is even worse. They were excited and “with you” the whole way. You really bonded. You like them and more importantly, you absolutely believe they like and trust you. They even told you they want your products and services for themselves. Of course, they still need to run it by their spouse/boss/silent partner/board of directors/accountant/lawyer/that guy they see every morning at Starbucks/their psychic… You get the picture. I have seen these deals close. I also saw Bigfoot once…

SOOO… How do you know?

You can take the chance that you have educated the person in front of you, to such an extent in the last 30-45 minutes, that they can do your job for you. Or you can politely insist on scheduling a meeting with ALL decision-makers together.

Your Prospecting Activity

You found time to make a bunch of new contacts that you think have a great chance of becoming customers. The gatekeepers were polite and the DMs even came to the counter to greet you! Maybe you didn’t schedule a bunch of appointments. O.k. you really only scheduled one appointment. The DM wants you to come in sometime next month to talk. That’s an appointment, right? In sales, you are definitely going to have days (sometimes days in a row) where you don’t schedule any DM appointments. If you keep on, keeping on, you are bound to get better, right?

SOOO… How do you know? 

You can only know you are improving if you know where you are now. Are you taking good notes? Are you tracking every attempt, success, failure, and objection you are getting? What are your conversion ratios? What were they last week? Last month? You know you should be tracking your activity but it seems to be a pain and waste your time. You are right, it is a pain. However, I have yet to see anyone that was world-class at anything that didn’t keep score.

Most People Don’t Want To Know

I’m convinced that the reason most people “Don’t Know” is that they don’t really WANT to know. As long as they don’t look too closely, it feels like they are making progress. It feels warm, safe and cuddly. They can tell their manager/spouse/creditors that they are making great progress and that their ship is about to come in. Most managers don’t ask hard, probing questions either because they too want to believe that sales are about ready to come pouring in. (But that is a story for another day.)

SOOO… How do YOU know? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Eric Hemati – Twins Separated at Birth – SIV #072 Shownotes

"We get out of life what we put into the lives of other people."

I first met Eric Hemati in early November of 2018 and knew immediately that we were kindred spirits. Since then we have probably spent 20-30 hours on the phone together. The more I talk to Eric, the more I realize that he is one of the “good guys” in our business. He does everything with excellence and integrity. Eric has spent 13 years building and growing his agency that has agents all across the United States. To accomplish this he does a great job of leveraging technology including a very innovative website for his agents to learn through.

As I’ve gotten to know Eric, I swear our experience, philosophies and leadership style are so closely aligned that I swear we must be twins separated at birth (and about 10 years.)

I know you are probably sick of hearing me say this, but you might want to take some notes… Of course, you don’t have to. Taking notes is voluntary… but so is success. Remember, you don’t have to be all fancy about it and write your notes in a bound leather journal. Just grab a brown paper bag and some blue crayons and let’s go to work.

Things Eric And I Talked About

  • He was expelled from seminary.
  • He started his career selling books door to door as a college intern
  • Adversity needs to be examined in perspective.
  • His passion is helping people live their best life.
  • Learning to ride in the current rather than fighting it.
  • The next 10 years are the “golden age” for Voluntary Benefits.
  • When you are having “one of those days” remember:
    • It’s not about you.
    • We tend to look at problems from the “me” perspective.
      • Why are they being mean to ME?
      • Why do bad things always happen to ME?
      • Why don’t people buy from ME?
  • The best way to get out of that funk is to make a positive impact on another person.

“The best advice I’ve ever received was to do what scares you.” – Eric Hemati

  • Be present
  • You only find your authentic voice after you know how to do something.
  • Courage doesn’t occur without fear.
  • If you saw someone talking to their dog like you talk to yourself, you would probably want to intervene and tell them not to treat their dog that poorly.
  • One of the biggest self-limiting beliefs is that we need to do something on our own. Lose the pride and ask for help!

Eric's Billboard
Love each other

The Books eric and i Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Sell Or Be Sold – Grant Cardone

Think and Grow Rich  – Napoleon Hill​

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

The Richest Man is Babylon – George S Clason

Where To Connect With Eric

Twitter @DCOffline

His website:  https://www.workforcelife.com/

NEXT WEEK

Join me again next week when I bring on Andy Neary. Andy is going to school us on creating mindshift by eliminating mindshit.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

Brad Lea – 4 Pillars of Training – SIV #071 Shownotes

"Training is something we do, not something we did." - Brad Lea

I first talked to Brad Lea 6 years ago when I reached out to him about a tweet he had posted. We spoke for nearly an hour and he explained his training technology platform, Light Speed VT, and how it was completely changing the way organizations deliver training results to their people. He was killing it then and his business has grown exponentially since.

I have continued to follow Brad via Twitter and recently Instagram. His posts are always incredibly positive and uplifting. The cool thing is that his posts are the real deal. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but what some supposed gurus post online, has nothing to do with their reality. It’s refreshing to see someone like Brad who actually lives out the values he espouses.   

If you decided to listen to this podcast today because you needed an attitude adjustment, you are in the right place! But know this, Brad is going to purposely try to make us a little uncomfortable. He believes that we need to seek out and embrace discomfort as it is the only way we grow. I know you are probably sick of hearing me say this, but you might want to take some notes… Of course, you don’t have to. Taking notes is voluntary… but so is success. Remember, you don’t have to be all fancy about it and write your notes in a bound leather journal. Just grab a brown paper bag and some blue crayons and let’s go to work.

Things Brad And I Talked About

  • He dropped out of school at 16 when
  • His dad kicked him out of the house.
  • His upcoming book The Hard Way.
  • The difference between “hard work” and “working hard.”
  • How he mastered the game of sales.
  • He became addicted to helping others learn sales and watching them have incredible success.

  • The four keys necessary for learning:
    • Great content
    • Repetition
    • Practice and role play
    • Accountability
  • With the right knowledge, success is guaranteed.
  • Confidence comes from competence and competence comes from practice.

"I took the scenic route. It’s been a longer journey than I thought. But, EVERY SINGLE DAY I GET: A little better. A little smarter. A little closer to my goal. As long as I’m breathing, I’m on my way." - Brad Lea

The Books Brad and i Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

The Bible – God

Think and Grow Rich  – Napoleon Hill

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

The Richest Man is Babylon – George S Clason

Where To Connect With Brad

LinkedIn – Brad Lea

Facebook

Twitter @TheRealBradLea

Instagram TheRealBradLea

YouTube Channel

His website: https://www.bradlea.com

NEXT WEEK

Join me again next week when I bring on Eric Hemati. Eric and I only first met late last year but I swear we are twins separated at birth. We share many of the same beliefs and mindsets for both sales and in life. Eric is going to give you some rea, practical, and effective tools to help you build your practice. You are also going to love his positivity and energy.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

Eric Silverman – Returns – SIV #070 Shownotes

All we have to do is change everything.

I’ve known today’s guest Eric Silverman for a long time. When we had him on last time he sparked some controversy with some of his opinions and thoughts around where he thinks the Voluntary Benefits industry, or as he calls it enhanced benefits, is headed. Well if you though his last appearance was controversial, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t agree with him on several things we talked about but I do admire, respect and am willing to be challenged by his positions and beliefs. How open are you to hearing things that might challenge your status quo? I never want to close off my thinking by digging into my position without understanding the other side of the argument.

As you listen to today’s podcast, my guess is that there will be somethings Eric talks about that might not sit quite right with you or even make you mad… And that’s great!

Eric would love to start a conversation with you and listen to your point of view.

During our interview I forgot to talk about his excellent book Breaking Through The Status Quo. That was completely my fault. (Sorry Eric!) I can’t recommend it enough!

Now SERIOUSLY get out blue crayons and brown paper bag to take some notes. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and facilitating a lively discussion around this interview.

Things Eric And I Talked About

  • Eric fully admits he is a recovering carrier rep
  • Insurance is a small industry.
  • We are in the people business.
  • You must know what is going on in the industry.
  • Bypassing the broker has killed the reputation of Voluntary Benefits.
  • Every employee must become a true consumer.

  • There here are only 4 types of medical brokers as it pertains to Voluntary Benefits.
    • Those who ignore VB.
    • Those who send it to the same carrier rep they always use.
    • Those who bring it in house by hiring a VB practice manager.
    • Those who outsource through a carrier agnostic boutique VB firm (like Eric’s.)
  • Eric thinks of himself as a supply chain manager for brokers.

"How can you claim that you are breaking through the status quo if you are treating Voluntary Benefits the same way you always have?" - Eric Silverman

The Books eric and i Talked About

As always: Click on the cover below to learn more or purchase through Amazon.

Breaking Through The Status Quo – Eric Silverman

Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work – Stephan Schiffman

The CAP Equation – Joe Buzzello

Don’t Keep Me A Secret – Bill Cates

Where To Connect With Eric

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

His website: http://voluntarydisruption.com/

NEXT WEEK

Join me again next week when I bring on Brad Lea. Brad is a guy I have been following on social media and the work he is doing with his company LightSpeed VT for at least 5 years. You are going to love his positivity and mindset.

Until then, I wish you great SUCCESS! I’ve heard it’s VOLUNTARY…

The 5 Words That Will Kill Your Sales Career

You don't understand, I'm different!

After 20 years of recruiting, on-boarding and training salespeople, it never ceases to amaze me when a new salesperson says this to me. The sad fact is that almost all of the new agents I have worked with, at some level, believed it (whether they expressed it out loud or not.)

How do I know? Their actions made it crystal clear.  They failed to follow the sales system they had been given. They thought that they were smarter than the other poor rubes that they worked with. If someone else, who was following the system, was having success, they must be cheating, lying, stealing, or just plain lucky. “There is no way that person is smarter than me,” the agent who isn’t following the system thinks.

The reality is that they are probably right. And that will absolutely kill their chances for success. Over my career I have noticed that the “smarter” someone is, or thinks they are, the less likely they are to follow the system to the letter.

Put The Pressure On The System

In Joe Buzzello’s fantastic book The Cap Equation  Joe recounts a story of his father (who was never in sales by the way) rather pointedly expressing to Joe that he had never actually done exactly what the sales manager had asked him to do. When Joe realized his father was right he went back to the system with abandon.

I have heard Joe repeatedly coach people to “Put the pressure on the system.” In other words, take your personality, skill level, and “motivation” out of the equation. Nike it.  Just do it. Just do what the company is asking you to do. Just do it whether you feel like it or not. Do it before you learn everything you “think” you need to know. Just do it before you have the “polish and charisma” that your manager/trainer has. Just do it!

Ten Ways To Kill Your Sales Career

Here are the 10 ways I have found people, who through their actions or by what they say, are expressing those five deadly words, “You don’t understand. I’m different.”

  • “You don’t understand. I’m different” I’m above cold calling. I am going to join 213 leads groups. All the business I could ever want will show up at the Chamber of Commerce mixers I will attend. I’m going to get 100% of my business through referrals. I have a golden Rolodex and everyone will line up to buy from me. (Millennials, Google the word Rolodex.)
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I know the company encourages me to start with my natural market, those people who know, like and trust me. But I don’t want to approach them until I am a pro. How embarrassing it is to let people know I might need help.
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I have been around 3 months now and I don’t need that training coming up this week. I mean I could be out in the field making money. I’m sure they are just going to harp on why we should follow their stupid system.
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” There is absolutely no reason for me to learn the scripts. Who talks like that anyway? I prefer to just allow the conversation to flow. I don’t want to come off as too “sales-y.”
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I have to understand every nuance, feature, and memorize the pricing of every single product before I can start marketing. I mean what if they ask me a question I don’t know the answer to? I don’t want to make our company look bad. Besides, if I don’t know everything about our products, how can I know if I believe in them? There is no way I could ever sell something I don’t believe in so I’m going to spend this week, at my desk, learning the product inside and out.
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I pride myself in providing world-class service to my clients. If I keep prospecting there is no way I’m going to be able to handle all the business I have coming in.
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I don’t have time to follow up on all my prospects. If they didn’t buy from me the first time, why should I give them any more of my time?
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I’m not really much of a reader. I read enough in college to last a lifetime. Besides, you can’t learn how to sell by reading. It has to be learned through the “school of hard knocks.”
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different.” I took this sales position so that I could be my own boss. I’m an independent contractor. When you start paying my health insurance, you can tell me what to do.
  • “You don’t understand. I’m different………………………….”

I know many of you at about this point are getting ready to print this post off (or forward it by email) for someone you think really needs to read it. (I’d really appreciate if you did that!) My question for you though is are you guilty of believing you are different? Maybe you have been around a while and have had enough success that you have strayed away from the system. Perhaps your success is in spite of abandoning the system. My guess though is that if you had continued to press on doing exactly what your company taught you, your success would be even greater.

“Weird… EVEN GREATER success is voluntary? Who knew?” ~Tim Martin

Tweet That!

The bottom line is that until you give up the delusion that you are different you will never reach your full potential.

Tell me how you are volunteering for success this week by leaving a comment below.