Recently I attended “Radiance Master Classes” by Transformational Coach Suzanne Adams. I have been listening to Suzanne Adam’s on an off. The first time I learnt about her work is in this TED Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RuCfTiCDjs What I liked about her master classes are the calming effects that those had on me. Also she mentioned bigger vessels can take more – so we have to expand our energetic container. Her session on emotional intelligence and conflict management is the one that I liked most. She provided her real life story/example of how she used her understanding of energy entanglement so as not to react when a person triggered her button. When we react our energy gets entangled with the other person’s energy and the whole situation becomes chaotic. But if we do not react then that entanglement does not happen. Also I read somewhere that until we have the lesson /until we tackle a tricky situation right the situation reappears. In the exam of life you an stay in same grade until you have the lesson. Also the situation or person that triggers us is showing us areas where we still need to work for our spiritual growth. I took courses by many transformational coaches so far but I have not found any session yet that covered emotional intelligence from divinity/spirituality perspective. Hence this is the one that worked most effectively for me as now a days explanation that is based on energy dimension speaks to my heart. I applied that training (it was free that time) during my tricky work situations recently. I would react and make it worse in the past. But as of recently I handled those situations fairly well and have more peace at work. I am looking for ways to purchase recording of that session. If I find how to I will post the link. In the meantime I am searching for something useful that talks about spiritual ways of conflict resolution.
This quote by Victor Frankl is worth considering “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” . Instead of immediately reacting in a provocative situation we can pause for more effective response and situation management.
Also here is an excellent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1waHtJwcRaw from Wayne Dyer – that if we squeeze an orange we get orange juice no matter how hard/how soft it is pressed. What is inside that comes out. Similarly if we are angry under stress then the anger is within us. How did it get there? By our thoughts. So by managing thoughts we can manage what is inside and what will come out under difficult situation.
We cannot remove darkness with darkness ; we need light. Similarly we cannot effectively manage conflict by being engaging in angry fight, yelling etc. We have to express what is in our mind in healthy manner. I heard an excellent presentation on YouTube that used this following story. Let’s say a five year old wants to drive a car. If you do not let it it is having tantrum. Dumping that kid in the trunk of the car to keep him/her quiet is an unhealthy approach. Similarly giving in and letting her drive the car is equally unhealthy approach. We have to find healthy way to set expectation with the kid. Same is true in case of all conflict resolution scenarios.
For managing conflict recently I introduced another technique – that is making up a song in my head and signing “Hey hola Ni Hao let’s turn lemon into lemonade – wohoooo” . Got the idea after reading Lisa N.’s book “No matter what. Also music/singing were used by some people in the concentration camp and other confinements to keep their spirits up in those seemingly tough and hopeless situations. That inspired my “music in head” approach to calm myself down.
Couple of years ago I was a consultant/contractor/vendor with Ministry of Jobs. There was a contractor from another company. That person used to provide me unsolicited advice in very patronizing ways even though he did not have a lot of knowledge on those subjects (that I figured). I wish I knew more effective ways of handling such patronizing behaviors instead of bottling up my anger and frustration. Suzanne Adam’s and all the other tactics that I mentioned above could be very useful if I knew of these tactics in the past. Those would make those days of running my small business more peaceful and productive.
Recently I joined John Assaraf’s “5 Day Business Breakthrough challenge” (BBC) program. The cost of joining the program was USD 47. With this price the access is temporary for about one month after the challenge is over. The program has 3 days money back guarantee. For VIP elite life time access to the training and QA sessions the cost would be additional USD 97 on top of the initial USD 47 investment.
I have been seeing his ads for years and at some point I purchased his books “Innercise” and “The answer”. Still I was little skeptical about what a $47 challenge would even provide. After enrolling and actively participating I found that I was wrong. You can have a look at Free Lead Generation and Sale on Auto Pilot to satisfy your curiosity.
The base session each day was around 90 minutes long. With questions and answers (Q&A) part the daily session easily turns into 2 hours or 4 hours long. Other than sample limited QA sessions for the general admission group most of the Q&A sessions were for VIP tier.
Even though the main challenge was a five day long one; with bonuses it pretty much turned into a ten days worth of learning materials. John consistently over delivers. Almost 15 to 20 hours of coaching at 47 USD is a huge bargain for the attendees.
I have taken two other expensive Sales training programs- each costed me more than a thousand dollars USD. However those two training programs provided coaching on one specific area in the sales process. Additionally for those programs the claim was – those do work for any industry and any type of business. The truth is – those do not. Those were not good fit and scalable for public sector service consultancy type of work where you sell mid ticket products/services. This is simply because of the lengthy sales cycles, feeling lost when you do not have idea of the sequence and sales process flowchart, lot of decision makers being involved, Lengthy RFP processes only to find out at the end that the RFPs were cancelled. The RFP submission work without any awarded projects leads to entrepreneurial burn out.
On the other hand John’s challenge program covers the end to end sales process. Also he described the process in a way that is generic enough to be applicable to different businesses. He also advised us not to get involved in the “business of convincing”. We should deal with someone who already needs our services/products.Basically going after people who are already acutely aware of pain or aspiration that my service or product can relieve or deliver. Basically we should filter out people who are not our potential customers and use our valuable time, effort and money for the people who are potential customers.
John provided lots of specific examples. The amount of material may feel overwhelming. However John indicated that is a good sign. The presence of resistance and overwhelm are showing that we are getting past our comfort zone. We are growing. The area of resistance is exactly the area for growth; if we can breakdown that barrier then that is the pathway to our full potential /excellence.
Day 1 of the challenge was focused on – each participant’s . Vision, Goals, and BIG WHY.
Day 2 was focused on – Creating Perfect Client Profile / Avatar. This is very important. It determines how to craft the message. It also indicates where to find them (channels) – where those potential clients are active. If we know the ideal client profile well then we can make the most of our business resources reaching out to them. The Goal of marketing is not about the business owner; it is about the prospects or potential customer. The goal is to make them feel understood – it is to make sure that we understand their pain, aspirational goals etc. That’s why knowing our avatar is so critical for marketing and sales success. To elaborate the point of why it is important to know where those potential clients are active let’s talk about fishing. To catch Tuna we have to go to a specific area in ocean where tunas hang out. If our ideal client profile says that person is 65+ then it would not be wise to use Snapchat as a channel to market. This is because ideally people of that age do not use Snapchat.
Day 3 was on Neuro-Marketing and Neuro-Sales. I may have heard same message a few times but in the past it was not sticking but John made it very clear. He talks about reptilian, mammalian and then analytical brain. John explains which part of brain gets activated in which order and how to get spotlight attention from potential buyer to cut through the noise.This knowledge helps with disarming/soothing protective side of brain that seeks safety (prevent loss) more than gain. When we use that knowledge about brain in more effective sales and marketing pitch – we are doing “neuro marketing” and “neuro sales”. Basically a client make purchase decision based on emotion and then justify the decision with logic. This is another excellent part of John’s program. Neuroscience is John’s latest interest so he connected the dots between how brain operates and effective sales and marketing strategies and tactics . Customers do not buy feature of a product. Instead they buy benefits or benefit of benefits.
Until taking this course my approach to marketing and sales was fully logical – I ignored emotional part altogether. That explains the result of my past effort in sales and marketing.
Day 4 is on Lead Generation, Sales and distribution Channels. You can have a look at Free Lead Generation and Sale on Auto Pilot to satisfy your curiosity. John talks about free and paid lead generation sources, lead qualification (asking question, survey) , sales funnel, getting 5% of the people ready to buy, nurture the 15% who are still on the edge in making purchase decision (statistically it takes 5 to 12 attempts/communication on average before a purchase happens) and filter out the rest. Another good point that John mentioned is – for lead generation master one channel first before spending (your energy, time, money etc.) on many different channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. Many other sales trainer emphasize the concept of “omnipresence”. I do not recall John saying that in this beginner friendly challenge course. We can discuss that another day.
Day 5 is about Sales Process Mapping and Inner Game of business Success, metric and optimization. He talks about proper mindset for wealth, risk taking, investment (what we spend in getting training is an investment instead of cost – that is a shift in perspective you see) as well. Forming habit by repetition – by getting rid of old programming, paradigm and money block is important. However the effort has to disciplined and consistent – even if it is a tiny step daily that is fine. Quoting John again – “Consistency is more important that intensity”
There was a bonus QA session that was amazing where John mapped his course materials with respect to individual’s lead magnet, marketing hook, price point increase etc. questions.
Carl Harvey – he is one of John’s past students, was very suicidal in the past and then he met John. He does copy writing (was trained by John’s team) and was invited during one of the bonus sessions. Most of the attendees loved that session and Carl’s magnificent presence.
The way the whole process of the Business Breakthrough Challenge is setup – from that you would know how to build trust with free, or cheaper product/service, over deliver in the cheaper product/service to build trust. Statistically any bigger ticket item purchase (couple of hundred to thousands of dollars) needs 5 to 12 interaction/communication. Anything priced higher than 1K $ would need human interaction. After this nurturing process there is request to join the high priced item where there is more emphasis on accountability and increased support from the private community of other students and experts from John’s team. Marketing guru Jay Abraham explained that beautifully in the book “Sticking Point Solution” and below is a snapshot from that book.
To learn about one free lead generation technique with flowchart that I am using as well as to get to John’s business breakthrough masterclass please have a look here Free Lead Generation and Sale on Auto Pilot
Depending on price point John’s programs are a mix of done with you vs done for you scenarios. I noticed that after taking Jon’s BBC program different set of materials (in my surroundings /what is coming in my way) is getting my spotlight attention. That is helping me with proper positioning of myself and what I have to offer to the world. I am taking tiny steps, already formed some habits and mindset conducive to wealth generation, got past my fear of being judged and embarrassed. Oh and I answered that question – “Are you committed? Or are you merely interested?
I am committed to play bigger.See me in one year. 🙂
Marketing is to create visibility of a product or service to potential customers who would be benefited from using it.
The product /service can solve pain or help with reaching aspirational goals of potential clients.
To market we have to find out where the potential customer is.
To catch a Tuna we have to go where the Tuna is.
To catch a Salmon we have to go to where the Salmon is.
We would not cast net on road to get fish; we would cast net in sea or river. The same is true for marketing in terms of targeting proper channels.
Now what if my potential client is hard to reach?
As for example let’s say my potential customer Samantha is a professional women high in career ladder -overwhelmed with career and home responsibilities.
She is so overwhelmed that she does not go for networking.
To get access to her one good idea would be to find common connections between Samantha and me. The common connector could be her accountant, banker, hair stylist, even her spouse.
The connector may be someone who knows a lot of people and who likes to introduce people for mutually beneficial purposes.
I found that idea of leveraging common connection very useful.
