Coaching and Inspiration

If you’re a casualty from the subprime sector of the mortgage business and your in sales, here are some things you can do to prepare yourself to get back in:

1. Update your resume professionally. If you can’t do that, do it yourself and get it in the hands of someone who was a hiring manager in the business that agrees to review it. Then make the changes they recommend.
2. Isolate all your contacts in the business that you’ve worked with in the recent past and the distant past. List EVERYONE you can think of even if you think they don’t like you.
3. Formulate an email to all these contacts to let them in on your availability and send them a copy of your resume to see if they have any positions available or know anyone who does. Make sure you get names, contact numbers and email addresses of potential contacts they may know. Also, don’t ask, "Do you know anyone who is hiring?" Instead, ask "Who do you know that is hiring?" There’s a big difference in those two questions.
4. Join several of the networking websites online such as LinkedIn where you can post your information and connect with people you’ve worked with. A key point here is to get yourself recommended on these sites as well. This is where you get other people to "endorse" your past work by recommending you. The magic behind these sites is that every person that you know has a sphere of influence that you otherwise would have no contact with. Once you get "LinkedIn" with the people you know, you can view the names and contact info of everyone they know. That’s powerful! I have some people in my network that have several hundred contacts.
5. Put together a small website about yourself and post your resume on it. Most internet services come with a small amount of webspace that you can utilize.
6. Get together your last 2 years paystubs or W2s. Most mortgage companies want proof that you made what you stated on the application at your last job. Be prepared to prove it.
7. Put together a list of past clients that were impressed with your work. Include names and phone numbers of key people potential hiring managers can call.
8. Prepare yourself to do things you haven’t done in a while. For example, the last company I worked at did not require their sales people to complete call sheets. That’s not the case in many companies anymore. Be prepared to do things you either haven’t done in a while, or have never done before.
8.5 Prepare yourself to step back a little in your career. If you can’t get your ideal job, but think you found the ideal company, deciding to take a temporary step back could mean major strides ahead down the road. Just make sure you set a goal to move up using the goal setting techniques I talk about in this blog.

The final thing I’ll tell you is this: The most important key to your success in finding a new job is your attitude. If it sucks, it will show through in every interaction you have. Remember, people don’t want to work with crappy attitudes. Like the old song says, "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again." But do it with a smile on your face!

I know you can do this and I definitely believe in you!

My son (9th grade) came home from school yesterday and was asking if his report card came. I said it didn’t and his reply was, "Good." That didn’t sit well with me! Well today it came. In order to set the stage here I must tell you that we’re in the middle of having him evaluated for a learning disability. He excels at things he’s interested in but doesn’t do well at all in things he loathes.

When he got home tonight I told him his grades and he had a big smile on his face. "Really! That’s pretty good!" It was better than the last one but it was by no means "pretty good." Each time I have this conversation with him I have to try hard to remember when I was his age. My grades were about the same. But I would never DARE to say to my parents that the grades were "pretty good." Today, kids are much more open with their parents which I’m OK with. As long as it doesn’t border on disrespectful (which I see a lot these days) I’m ok encouraging honest communication.

Also today, my daughter’s teacher (4th grade) wrote on her report card that she’s a day dreamer in class. I wanted to email her and scream out how awesome I think that is! Our world is short on dreamers. Now of course, the practical parent in me talked with her about the proper places to dream but I certainly didn’t scold her for day dreaming. When I asked her about it she said, "Well dad, I’d rather be at the beach then in class…" Of course she was polishing her 10th grade comedienne skills.

As I think about the subject of school, it’s hard not to preach the programs that we learned growing up. In reality, school is important because of the traits you develop, not for the stuff you can memorize. Most of what you learn won’t be used later in life with the exception of basic math, writing and English. But the traits you learn - study habits, discipline, relationships with other students, teamwork, respect for adults, athletic abilities, structure, and certain creative talents - are invaluable (I’m sure I’m leaving something out). The truth of the matter is that many of the world’s most wildly successful people either dropped out of school early, didn’t go to college, or stayed in until the end of college but didn’t do well in their subjects. But they most definitely mastered one or more of the traits I mentioned above, especially if they’re in sales today.

So, this is a mortgage and financial services sales blog and what does all this have to do with selling? I think the tie in is that we cause ourselves a lot of stress by holding on to things teachers and parents told us and we let that squelch what we can be and do later in life. Selling is a tough enough field without all this. When you’re good at sales - not just numbers, but the quality of all the traits above - you have to bring all your faculties together to help you be your best and stay on top of everything. Carrying crap from the past weighs you down and negatively affects how good you can sell.

Know this: How well you did in school really has nothing to do with how well you can do in life. If you want to be the best mortgage loan officer or the best insurance consultant, then you can be. But you must drop off some of those bags in the trash on your way into your office. Remember, they need you but you certainly don’t need them.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

I was listening to a great program the other day by Vic Johnson and he said something that really resonated with me. He said, "If anyone talked to your children the way you talk to yourself, you’d probably have them arrested!" That described me several years ago and I was my own worst enemy. I’ve spent the last several years teaching myself how to change my self talk. What I’ve learned is amazing. Even today I sometimes struggle with things I think or say about myself. It’s such a strong force in our lives and I believe that working on this one aspect of yourself sets the groundwork for more change to follow.

This world needs instruction on how to change self talk. The more I go through life and interact with people, the more I say to myself, "This person could benefit from some new self talk." I hear things like, "I’m so stupid," and "Why do I always do that? I’m such an idiot." I try to tell them that those kind of statements are just building upon what’s already there. Someone I know repeats this phrase probably a minimum of 5 times a day, "I can’t even remember what happened 5 minutes ago. How am I supposed to remember what happened yesterday or the day before?" And you know what, she always forgets things we talk about. Why? Because she is pounding into her brain her belief about her terrible memory over and over and over again. And her brain believes her and is acting on that belief. Every time she’s listening, her brain is saying, "I don’t really need to remember this because I’m going to forget about it in 5 minutes anyway." And it does.

In my business I recommend that people use self talk CDs to change their programming. These professionally recorded CDs tell you true statements about who you are and what you can do. That’s a great place to start because it builds the foundation of successful programming. Stop talking trash to yourselves. You’re worth more than that. And so are your kids. Because if you talk trash to your own mind, you most likely are talking trash to the people closest to you. Take responsibility and make that change for yourself and your loved ones. Let me know if you want to get your hands on some of those CDs.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you.

I was having coffee with a friend recently and he was telling me how he left a company he was with for several years after he got a call from some people he used to work with and they wanted him to come to work with them. After much thought he decided to leave the position he was in to go for this "better opportunity". Four months later the new company closed and he found himself out of work. Many people take this risk understanding that it’s necessary to move ahead only to find out that they’ve made a crucial mistake.

Omar Bradley, the 20th century American Army Commander said, "We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship." Left to our own discernment about what this means could lead us down several roads. What struck me when I first read it was that the stars are permanent. They haven’t changed much in millions of years so we should make our decisions based on what we know to be consistently reliable, unlike passing ships.

I wouldn’t say that my friend made his decision based on a ship passing in the night. When it happens once and is made with the right amount of thought, the best decision is made at the right time with the right amount of information. When you make that kind of decision more than once, like I’ve done, because every opportunity that comes along looks better than the last one, you’re headed for disaster like an oil tanker that runs aground. I’ve learned what Omar Bradley knew: When you make decisions you should make them based on things that are stable, like the stars. Understanding that, we have to remember that an acceptable amount of risk is good, just not risking everything for every opportunity that comes along.

As sales people, we have to stay focused on what we know to be true. We can’t let everything someone says drag us down. If a former customer is bad mouthing your company, don’t try to find ways to validate it and complain to your boss. You’d do much better by standing up for what you know your company represents and re-painting the right image into the mind of your customer without tearing down your former customer.

The next time you’re in a situation and you’re not sure how to react, look upward and realize that the only road is the one you know to be true, reliable and has a history of success. I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

"There was a very cautious man
Who never risked, or tried.
He never hoped, he never failed;
He never laughed or cried.
And when he one day passed away,
His insurance was denied
For since he never really lived
They claim he never died!"

This is a very powerful poem that speaks volumes about living. How do you live? Are you out to make a quick buck or are you out to change lives? As sales people we come in contact with a lot of people either in person or over the phone. Have you ever thought about how you affect their day or their life? Do they see you coming and hurry up and pick up the phone? Are they glad after you leave because the room brightens up? These are some great questions.

We are in the greatest profession in the world. There’s no other profession where you’ll have the opportunity to meet new people everyday and have a positive effect on their lives. Making money is definitely important. But what’s more important is going to sleep at night knowing that you’ve had a positive effect on someone else’s life. Don’t be like the man in the poem. Be someone who people look forward to seeing.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you.

In yesterday’s post I talked about believing in yourself and how that comes from the programming you received growing up. I also told you that all your thoughts and actions spring from that programming and that now that you know there’s a way to change it, it’s your responsibility to do it. So, today I’m going to teach you the things you need to do to change your programming. I have one word of caution though. This takes time. One blog post is not going to undo 30 or more years of negative programming. I’m a perfect example. I’ve been practicing this process daily for almost 5 years. Although I’m light years ahead of where I was, I still struggle with the negative programming I received as a child.

So here’s what we know:

1. By the time we’re 40 years old, we’ve received over 200,000 negative self talk statements given by our parents, our siblings, our teachers, our bosses, our friends.

2. Our brains are like computers. What we put in, it gives us back. It doesn’t care whether it’s positive or negative.

3. There’s a way to change that. It’s called Positive Self-Talk.

4. The best methods we know that work for Positive Self Talk is by listening to it several times a day either on tape or on CD.

5. Reading the statement out loud does not work even though most self-improvement experts teach that it does.

6. The best time to listen to self talk is in the morning as your getting ready for work, while your driving, and right before you go to sleep at night.

7. The best way to listen to self talk is by letting it play quietly in the background as your doing something else. It just has to be loud enough so that you can understand what is being said. There’s no need to concentrate on the words. Your subconscious mind is listening whether or not you know it.

8. People who are with you while it’s playing will benefit from it as well even though they may not want to.

9. Listening to self talk will change your life. It changed mine.

You now have one of the major keys to changing your life. If you’d like to know more, contact me through the blog and I will let you know where to get professionally recorded self talk that really works.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success." This quote by Norman Vincent Peale holds a lot of wisdom. People who really believe in themselves are much more successful than people who don’t. Where does that belief come from? One major place is your programs. When you were growing up, you were given limiting statements about yourself that playback in your head now, like a broken record. Because they’ve been there for so long, you think that it’s part of you. You say, it’s "just the way I am. That’s how I’m wired." It’s how your wired alright and someone else is responsible for it - up until now! Now that you know it, your responsibility is to get yourself wired correctly.

In our most formative years, everything that’s told to us is extremely important to our young minds. Everything is stored in our brains and then acted on as though it’s true. So if you were told your whole life growing up that you were a stupid kid, guess what? When you’re in your 30s and 40s your mind still thinks you’re the same "stupid kid." All your actions and reactions play into what your mind knows to be true - that you’re stupid. All your decisions today, then are acted on through that belief. Fortunately, there’s a way to change that…but you’ll have to tune in tomorrow to find that out. 

***I should also tell you that tomorrow’s blog will be password protected. If you’d like the password, please subscribe to my blog and I’ll send you the password.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

When times start to get tough and talks of a recession loom, we all worry about our investments. Whether they are IRA’s, 401k’s or other investment accounts, we have good cause to worry. But if you’re a long term investor, there’s probably nothing to worry about because the market always has it’s ups and downs and traditionally, over the long haul, most people wind up ahead.

But there’s another investment I’d like you to consider. I’m not a Certified Financial Planner by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve got a really hot tip for you. This investment is one that never loses value. Each time you make a deposit, it will build on what’s already there. Even if you stop adding to it, it will appear like it’s losing value but once you begin again, you’ll start exactly where you left off. This investment will change your life. As it grows, you’ll begin to enjoy life more and you’ll notice that your quality of life will go up AND your income at your current profession will most likely increase! You’ll probably even get a promotion! This investment has no caps, no early withdrawal penalties, no age limits, no term limits and you can share the profits with anyone and use them for anything and the interest rate it carries is completely up to you. But best of all, this investment is recession proof!

Are you dying to know what this investment is? Ready? It’s an investment in yourself! That’s right. When you invest in yourself, it never loses value. It does build on what’s already there and if you stop investing in yourself, you won’t lose what you’ve learned although it does hide in your subconscious making it appear that you’ve lost it. But once you start investing again, the previous value jumps back to the head of the class. the more you invest the better life you’ll have - you’ll have more joy, more quality time in your life and the more you learn and develop yourself the more your customers and clients will appreciate you and give you more business and referrals thereby increasing your income. Investing in yourself has no caps, penalties, age limits, term limits, profit sharing limits and the rate of interest depends on how much you want to improve. If your interest is low you’ll get low value but if your interest is high you’ll get high value.

How does this investment work? First you make the decision to do it and commit to that decision. Then you start by designing  a personal development program that includes reading, listening and attending seminars. You can also order my brand DVD called Secrets of Sales Power. And I’ll give you a little hint - it also contains secrets of LIFE power! This DVD is designed to get you started with the fundamentals of living a powerful life.

Investing in yourself is the best investment you can make and it’s easy. You just have to allow yourself time to develop the habits. Once you do, you’ll be unstoppable! I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you! 

There’s a lot of talk in the news about the coming recession. What are you doing to prepare? Do you have a plan? You may be surprised when I tell you that most if not all of what I teach through this blog is designed to recession-proof you.

When companies are looking to cut back during lean times, they usually go right for the people they consider to be "dead weight." They’re the people who are constatntly 5 or 10 minutes late, who are always late coming back from lunch, who leave at 5 p.m. sharp, and who never produce quite what they are capable of doing. It’s those people who go first.

When you work on the things I talk about in this blog like attitude, goal-setting and self development, you’re always staying sharp and on top of things. Your strongest tools for excelling in lean times is your skill set and your mind set. If you continually work on these two things, you’ll be safe. And if you’re one of the unlucky ones to be let go despite your work on yourself, then it wasn’t meant for you to be there and God has something bigger in mind for you. But typically the ones who go are the ones who "just get by."

Some great advice I learned several years ago from Jim Rohn is this: "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job". That doesn’t mean be a slacker at work but it does mean that it’s more important for you to work on yourself because that will get you the ultimate job.

I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

I also wanted to tell you that this blog will be changing it’s look within the next 7-10 days to look more like a traditional blog allowing for easy finding of information and surfing around. I’m excited about the changes and I know you will be too. I’m also working on some new products for you and I wanted to ask you if there was one product that would benefit you or that you’d like me to produce, what would that product be? Please email me to the address at the bottom of the page and as always, thanks for supporting this site.

When you sell for a living, especially in B2B selling, one of your biggest obstacles is your competition. Just when you think you’ve got them nailed, they change and come out with a product so advanced that the customers you just won over (or so you thought) go running back. Sometimes it gets like a ping pong match. One week they like you, the next they’ll "never do business with you again." It can be frustrating, let alone draining. But it’s very real.

The pressure in these situations can be so intense that we’ll bend over backwards to get our customers back. Sometimes, we’ll even be "a little less than truthful" by telling our customers that we can do something that we know we can’t. When they give us the business we take it back to the office and beg our bosses until we’re blue in the face to get it done. We’ll even tell our bosses "I gave them our word and I won’t back down on my word. We have to get it done!" In the process of doing this we create all kinds of stress and anxiety for the people in our back office trying to get the deal done.

I had a manager at one time share with me an excellent analogy regarding this. He said, "If you’re selling shoes and in your bag you have green shoes, brown shoes and red shoes, would you tell your customer that you can get them blue shoes? Of course you wouldn’t! That would be ludicrous! Why then, are you doing just that with our products? You know we don’t offer it but you sell it anyway. Why?" That’s a great question.

It’s important to realize that every action and decision we make affects someone else in the process. We can’t go out and haphazardly do things without thinking about the end result. Yes, your business is very important and without it there wouldn’t be any money to pay the back office. But it’s also important to remember that there would be no one to process the business without the back office. Both components are equally important. One can’t exist without the other. As an old friend once told me, "If you make a cake and you leave out the eggs, cake without eggs ain’t cake."

I know you can do it, and I definitely believe in you!