Something Just Clicked
I have to say… I’m thrilled to finally get this post published. After years of contemplating, and months of coaching, mentorship and preparation, I’m officially announcing of the launch of my professional speaking business. Those receiving this email are folks I deeply respect and think would be interested in the topics I’ll cover related to sales, leadership, and general growth.
A little background…
On the first sales call of my post college career, the customer yelled at me because he despised our company, told me I was too “green” to help him, and asked me to leave. Ouch. I quickly learned that I shouldn’t focus on “selling” - I needed to focus on “helping” by bringing ideas and insights. Something just clicked. And over the next year I turned a failing territory around by being a market expert.
I later moved into the digital marketing industry selling to major brands. My performance was dragging and my manager told me I needed more “swagger.” If I expected clients to take me seriously, I needed to carry myself like the expert I really was. Something just clicked. A confidence that was hiding within me was extracted, and helped me break through as a top performer.
When I became a manager, our executive team wanted more accountability around team performance. We handed goals and metrics down to the team - they resisted and nothing really changed. Attempting a reset, I had my team develop their own goals, and provided a simple worksheet to reverse engineer their goals into tangible monthly objectives. Something just clicked. The value of authoring your own plan is way more powerful than being it being handed down to you.
We’ve all experienced this feeling - when something just “clicks”. It may be a fresh idea, or something you’ve long struggled with that suddenly makes perfect sense - and your performance raises to a whole new level.
Something else clicked for me in the fall of 2013, when for the first time I stepped onto a large stage with hundreds of people in the audience - and I was completely energized. It’s hard to describe the feeling, other than to say it just felt right. Sure I was nervous and a little scared before walking on that stage, but when I got out there I felt a connection to the audience. And afterwards people shared they felt the same way - that my ideas “clicked” for them too.
I’ve been on many stages since, and the feeling of being energized continued, which is why in March of this year I decided it was time to take speaking more seriously. I’ve used this time to pull together dozens of stories and tangible tools, and combined them with the latest research on buyer, seller and employee behavior. My keynote speech has a simple goal - to bring fresh ideas to audiences that will create something that clicks and put them on a new trajectory of growth.
Right now there are three main speeches, which can be customized based on each client situation:
Building a Surround Sound Business - for full go-to-market teams
Surround Sound Selling - for sales teams
Surround Sound Leadership - for managers and leaders
As much as we want one, there’s no silver bullet for what unlocks growth and performance, but I’ll share a collection of mindsets that anyone can understand and will ensure that everyone in the audience walks away… with something that clicks.