The Idea Climbing® Podcast

Everybody faces fear at one time or another, it’s how you deal with it that makes the difference. That’s what Kyle Dean Houston and I discuss in this episode.

Fear Happens to all of Us

Most people that have ever achieved anything realized that they have to move outside of comfort in order to have a transformation. To achieve something, you’re going to have to give something else up. If you want to become exponentially successful, whatever that means to you, you’re going to have to face extreme discomfort. Kyle believes that success is complete transformation, understanding what you’re made of, understanding what life’s all about, and the only way to get there is to face fear.

The primary competitive advantage he’s seen in the business world is risk because risk is the one thing that people try to mitigate. As human beings we’re programmed to run away from fear. We need to face fear and move towards success.

Why People Stay in Their Comfort Zone

Primarily because it feels good. As humans we have internal systems that let us know when something feels good or bad. We get rewarded with bursts of serotonin from some things and because that feels good that’s what we want to run towards. Unfortunately, all of those are short term rewards. When we become conscious of this process, we realize that there are also long-term rewards that intuitively we don’t go towards until we start to see success on the horizon. We need to discover that there is pleasure on the other side of fear. The hardest way Kyle realized this is while serving what should have been a 30-year prison sentence; he shares his story in this episode along with how he reintegrated into society without ever doing email before he got out to becoming a Vice President in a two billion dollar publicly traded company.

How to Get Through Fear

Kyle says that he knew to become successful he had to be willing to do what everyone around him wasn’t willing to do. He realized that there was no shortage of excuses for him to quit. He decided he was going to continue to face fear and he was not going to do well for a guy who faced a long prison sentence. He decided that he was going to live up to the standards that he set to himself as a kid, to be happy and successful. Fear became the breadcrumbs leading him to discover what it was that he really wanted.

In this episode we also discuss:

What fears Kyle is currently facing and how he’s overcoming them.

How to build your risk muscle, or risk tolerance.

The one thing to do to get started facing your fears.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

About the Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle Dean Houston, author of Patchwork Junkie, is a speaker, author, and coach who is committed to bringing hope into the world. After walking out of prison at thirty-five with no college degree, no network, and having never sent an email, he built a highly successful career as a sales executive in San Francisco.

In less than a decade, he went from earning $10 an hour to Vice President in a $2B publicly traded company. He also put multiple companies onto the list of Inc. Magazine’s fastest 500 list. Kyle’s life story is shocking, riveting, and inspiring.

He currently lives in Tampa, FL with his wife and two daughters.

Learn more about Kyle!

www.kyledeanhouston.com  FaceBook - @kyledeanhouston, Instagram - @kyledeanhouston

When it comes to networking, the line between general networking meetings and prospecting meetings can be vague. You shouldn’t pitch someone the first time you meet them (that’s called pitch slapping); yet you need to grow your business. How to do that is what I discuss with serial entrepreneur Clay Hicks in this episode.

If you focus on earning trust with the person across from you then the like and know will follow. Mutually beneficial relationships, clients and referrals can follow.

You Need to Earn Trust

How do you earn trust when you’re getting to know someone? The keyway to focus on earning trust is to be of service to the person across from you. Once you connect with them try to help that person in any way possible. Ask exploratory questions such as “How can I help you?” and “Who would you like to meet?”. That second question is particularly important if you have a big network of people that could help the other person. Questions for people that don’t have that big of a network include “How’s business?” “How can I be helpful with your business?"

Asking questions like that is how you start to earn trust.

A Unique Way to Set Up a Second Meeting

Try not to have “one and done” meetings. Many networkers brag about the number of meetings they have each week. Numbers mean nothing if you’re not building your business and advancing your career. YOU need to ask for help and connections. By asking how you can help the other person first it means they are much more likely to reciprocate and help you.

When you both can help each other that’s a signal that you should meet with that person again. If there’s no help either way there’s no reason for a second meeting. The litmus test is whether they tried to help you back after you helped them. Sometimes people don’t know what they’re doing so you have to help them. They might just be having an “off day”. If their target market is like yours and you believe that, with time, they might be able to help you and vice-versa then that’s another reason to have a second meeting.

You can tee up the follow up meeting by asking to meet again so you can deepen your relationship. Tell them you want to know what it’s like to be their prospect. Tell them you want to know what it would be like for someone you refer to them to discuss their business. Most referrals come from past clients and deeper relationships, not first-time conversations. That’s because past clients know what it’s like to work with you. By asking them to learn about their prospecting techniques you can better refer them and vice versa. This strategy sets you both up to know what it’s like to work with the other person.

We also discuss:

How to ask prospecting questions without being overbearing.

Guidelines for successful prospecting

How to sell yourself and not just your product or service.

The crossover between general networking meetings and prospecting meetings.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

About the Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clay Hicks is an entrepreneur with a portfolio of 5 different companies, an author, a speaker, and trainer on professional relationships. Clay Hicks founded his first company, H7 Network (in 2008), in the hopes of positively impacting the many under-served entrepreneurs and all sales professionals.

His vision is to globally revolutionize the way business professionals “Connect” first, “Serve” with purpose, and “Ask” of their peers. H7 Network, a Franchisor, is a national B2B networking platform, In person and Virtual, for professionals to create their own network and develop champions for their business.

His responsibility as the CEO is to innovate new programs, develop new markets internationally, training and development, implementing new processes for retention, business and relationship development overall. H7 Network currently has members in 41 states and 10 other countries.

Connect with Clay!

www.h7network.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonrhicks/

Clay’s scheduler https://calendly.com/clayhicks

Mentoring relationships without structure can fail fast. With the right structure they can thrive. That’s what I discuss in this episode with Lisa Fain.

What do you think most mentoring programs do wrong? Most mentoring programs have a “pair and pray” structure. They pair people and pray that the program succeeds. People think because they’re in an “official” mentoring program and are having mentoring conversations that they don’t need guidance on how to do it. Unfortunately for them the structure is critical to success. It’s not about prescribing structure, it’s about co-creating structure. Mentors and mentees need to discuss the terms of their mentoring relationships so they can create structure and hold themselves accountable.

Terms of the mentoring relationship can be a bunch of things. It can be as simple as deciding when and where they’re going to meet, what they’re going to talk about and who is going to schedule it. It could be boundaries on what they will discuss. It could be checking in and how they’re going to provide feedback. There just needs to be structure.

How to Create Trust and Give Effective Feedback

Trust is a precondition for getting effective feedback. Where a lot of people go wrong is that they assume because they’re in a mentoring relationship they can freely give feedback that will be warmly received. First you need to take the time to build trust and a meaningful relationship. That means connecting; that means getting to know one another. This means that the mentors are sharing their own challenges and vulnerabilities. Lisa has received a lot of feedback about her programs that the mentees were more involved in mentoring relationships because they found out that their mentors aren’t perfect and have had challenges along the way.

Mentees are sharing what their own fears and doubts are. It means connecting on a human level and knowing what’s going on in one another’s’ lives. All of those build a foundation of trust so that when you get to giving and receiving feedback you will have an ongoing conversation instead of just one session of feedback. The conversation needs to be a balance of positive and critical feedback.

Feedback in a mentoring relationship is a two-way street. When you have healthy mentoring relationships, mentees can give feedback to the mentors about what’s working and what’s not working; what they want to see more of and what they want to see less of in the mentoring relationship.

How to Co-Own Your Mentoring Relationships

Mentoring has three primary components:

A learning component

A reciprocity component

A co-creation component

Without those three things you can’t have an effective mentoring relationship. We’ll look at co-creation first. Lisa says that there is “funny math” in successful mentoring relationships, one+one=three. There’s the mentor, the mentee and then the relationship that they co-create together and co-own. This is where trust and reciprocal feedback come into play.

Reciprocity. We know intuitively that mentees gain a lot from mentoring relationships. The data also shows that because of mentoring relationships mentors become better leaders and they feel more invested in their careers. The more mentoring experiences that mentors have makes them more competent leaders. This means that mentees also give and mentors also get. Many mentees don’t initially see that. Some even think that asking for time to have conversations is a burden to their mentors. That’s not the case, that time spent is a gift to both people.

Learning. Just having random conversations isn’t enough. Mentoring doesn’t happen unless there’s learning. Learning is the purpose, it’s the product and it’s the process of mentoring. Learning needs to happen to both the mentee and mentor based on the goals that they set together. Examples of learning include many things. An entrepreneurial example of a goal and learning experience is learning how to grow and scale their business. It could be learning about an entirely new industry or targeting a different market.

All of this put together gives you structure for successful mentoring relationships!

We also discuss:

The importance of having multiple mentors for different purposes.

How to get started being a mentor and how to find mentees.

What to do and what not to do while seeking out mentors.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book (which includes a chapter on mentoring) here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Fain is the CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence, where she spends her time working with organizations across the globe to create more inclusive workplaces through mentoring.  A global speaker, master facilitator, and executive coach Lisa works with individuals and  groups of all sizes to help them discover and create mentoring excellence.

Lisa formerly led the diversity and inclusion function at Outerwall Inc., and was an employment attorney at a multinational law firm for almost a decade.    She lives in Seattle, Washington where she loves to hike and explore the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more about Lisa!

Website  www.centerformentoring.com

More mentoring resources: https://linktr.ee/centerformentoringexcellence

Mentoring can be a crucially important part of your personal and professional lives. The challenge is finding the right people and creating successful mentoring relationships. That’s what I discussed with Gary Anzalone in this episode.

When you have a mentor, you can have a very fulfilled life because you have someone to talk to about your hopes and dreams. You have someone in your corner to give you objective feedback that you won’t get from a close friend or family member. You need someone that’s not attached to a specific outcome for you. That’s a mentor.

In successful mentoring relationships you should feel challenged and supported. You don’t grow as an individual by staying in your comfort zone. While compliments are nice to hear, they don’t help you grow. Real growth happens when you’re challenged. When a mentor challenges you and you respond, you’re going to make yourself better at whatever it is they’re challenging you to do differently. When you make yourself better at something you’re growing.

How do you create a safe zone to be uncomfortable?

By asking the right questions, which could include the direct question “What about that makes you uncomfortable?”

Early on in mentoring relationships both people realize that the purpose of the relationship is to get help and give help. It’s built on the presumption of trust. That doesn’t happen instantly, you must let it grow organically. With any relationship, time is a big factor, you must build history into it. The sharing of problems and solutions happens over time, and it just builds. It depends on the personalities, and it depends on the people.

How much time does it take to formulate a good mentoring relationship beyond just a one-time call? It depends on the people. Many younger people don’t know what to expect from a mentoring relationship. In some relationships the success of the mentoring relationship depends on the mentor asking the right questions and drawing solutions out of the mentee. In more advanced relationships the mentee has an agenda.

Approaching Potential Mentors

How to ask someone to be your mentor. Gary believes that one of the best compliments you can give someone is to ask them to be your mentor. That means that they think enough of you and view you in a favorable light. I want to understand your way of doing things because you carry yourself professionally and you’re happy.

You can’t be truly happy unless you practice gratitude. If you don’t practice gratitude you will probably be negative frequently. You must take ownership of your life and realize the decisions you make are something you must live with. You can make a decision to change the course of your life at any age. You can decide to change your life in many ways.

If you want to make a change it’s time to find a mentor or multiple mentors. You are the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with, if a mentor is one of them that’s a positive.

If you don’t ask you will not get. People are not going to knock on your door. Even if they don’t have the time, they will be flattered that you asked.

Creating an Agenda for Mentoring Meetings

After you ask, what should that first meeting look like? From a mentee point of view it should be “these are the things that I really would like to understand; these are the things that I struggle with” it could be “I need more work/life balance” or “I need more time with my family” A self-assessment is in order so you can start communicating and opening up to that mentor. The mentee needs to act and can’t sit back and wait for the mentor to tell them what to do.

That’s why it’s important for the mentors to ask the right questions to bring out the answers that the mentee needs to hear.

Your best self can be realized by having a mentor, now it’s time to go find one!

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Anzalone graduated from New York University on a full scholarship with a BS in Technology and Industrial Education. Gary is founding principal of Razor Consulting, an outsourced business development resource for companies looking to expand into NYC markets.

Learn more about Gary!

www.RazorConsultinginc.com

www.IBDPros.org

Episode 79! Everybody faces fear, it’s a matter of how you deal with it and move past it that matters. That’s what I discuss with Jacqueline Wales in this episode.

What is Fear?

Jacqueline believes that fear is imagination based. There are a lot of reasons why we can feel threatened in life, but fears are often just a story we tell ourselves to deal with discomfort. Fear is just an emotion, it’s not real. Unless you have tangible evidence, fear is just a story that you’re applying to a feeling that may or may not be true for you.

What is the fear of failure and how does it come up? The fear of failure is really tied into reputation status. It’s how other people will perceive you if you fail at something. Failure is a choice, decision or expectation that did not go the way you had planned. People who are perfectionists do not want to fail; they do not want to make mistakes. The fear of failure is so profound for some people because it says something about me, I’m not good enough. That fundamentally is where fear shows up, that insecurity of self.

Moving Past Fear

How can you get over the fear of failure? What can you do to solve that big problem? First, take a hard look at “what’s the worst thing that could happen if this doesn’t go the way that I had planned?” “Will we recover?” is the biggest question on failure. Can you recover from it? Often the answer is a resounding yes. You make a mistake, you fix it, you move on. Failure is simply the acceptance of things that will go wrong. It’s all about what you do with it when it goes wrong, that’s the gift that you give yourself.

People want to talk about something called imposter syndrome. Jacqueline believes that term is misused most of the time because fundamentally it’s about self-doubt. That can become the story that becomes the major driver of their life – “I’m not capable, I’m not good enough, I’m not deserving” and so on. Those stories are not true. If we care to analyze them and reflect on “Why am I carrying this story?” Nine times out of ten it’s a negative voice from a previous experience; someone somewhere told you that you weren’t good enough, i.e., you will fail.

How can you fix that? Set a future ambition that says “I KNOW that I can reach my goals. I don’t know how I’m going to reach them, but I will reach them” Then tell yourself a new story and move past fear.

We also discuss:

How to get rid of the negative voices in your head.

How to build confidence that will take you forward in a positive way.

What the fear of success really is and how to overcome it.

The brain chemistry that creates fear and how to deal with it.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At only sixteen years old, Jacqueline Wales fled from her childhood home in a desperate search for happiness. Looking in all the wrong places, she left a trail of abandoned children and a pattern of self abuse that threatened her life.

But that’s just the beginning of her story. From Leith, Scotland, to London, England; from the California coast to Paris, Amsterdam, New York, and Bali, Jacqueline’s life has been a journey of self-discovery, awakening, and joy in the face of fear.

Jacqueline believes that being fearless is not the absence of fear, but the courage to take the next step. Today, Jacqueline is an author, keynote speaker, and trusted advisor to successful, high-achieving women.

And she is an unwavering champion for being fearless.

Connect with Jacqueline on LinkedIn here!

Learn more about Jacqueline here!

Episode 78! Know, like and trust is great. Taking it one step further is respect. It’s all about the connections that you make with people and the relationships you build after you connect.  That’s what I discuss with Michael Goldberg in this episode.

Gaining Respect

There are phases to building relationships the right way. When you’re getting to know each other, you’re asking a lot of questions, figuring out if your personalities match and so on. At this phase oftentimes you’re not going to open your rolodex or database and make introductions. When you find a common ground, you’ve hit the “like” phase. When you enter the trust phase you believe that the other person is credible and great at what they do. Respect is the phase when you believe they are going to take care of anybody that you introduce them to. In that case it’s going to be a win-win-win scenario. It needs to be collaborative.

We need to be resources for one another, we must be helpful. That will help you establish a higher-level connection with the people that you want to develop relationships with. It’s about asking the right questions and being of service. This doesn’t mean that it will happen all the time. Michael believes that if he’s at an in-person networking event and he meets 10 people, he’ll hit it off with three or four of them. His suggestion is to focus on the “one-thirders”. To do this you need to create or become part of the right environments.

Connecting to Shared Passion

When you can find a common ground of shared passion you move along the know-like-trust-respect cycle faster. You both are interacting in similar environments or have an affinity towards similar marketplaces. If you can’t find an environment, you can create your own environment and bring people into it rather than going to them. You need to have criteria for the audiences you want to reach and stick to those criteria which means that you will end up turning some people away.

At the end of the day, it must be valuable for the people involved.

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Goldberg has helped thousands of financial advisors, brokers, and agents generate hundreds of thousands of dollars to their bottom line. His firm Knock Out Networking has been a speaking and training resource in the financial services industry for over 20 years. Michael is also the founder of THE Networking Group, a national networking organization focused on helping a “vetted” community of business owners and sales leaders grow their business through networking and referrals. Michael is a two-time TEDx speaker, an award-winning adjunct professor at Rutgers University, and frequently volunteers as a speaker at organizations focused on career search. His book Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors is available NOW!

Connect with Michael

www.KnockOutNetworking.com

www.TheNetworkingGroup.org

Episode 77! If you want to get ahead in business, you must give before you get. That’s what I discussed with Dan Horwich. Dan is an active networker focused on making a difference in the professional lives of IT practitioners.

Dan believes that money isn’t the key to happiness; relationships are the key to happiness. Here’s why.

When you get out of school, if you want to be an entrepreneur, what guides most people is the desire for money. The shiny objects aren’t what you thought they would be, your imagination can play tricks on you. Achievement is great, it’s one of those things that we all set out to do. But along the way you discover that the things that provide the most joy are connecting with others and having compassion for others. Those are how you build meaningful bonds. The more conversations you have and the more impactful you make those relationships you will find that the joy is in giving rather than taking.

When you take a heart centered approach you will attract people into your life that have that same approach.

Dan believes that he has to help other people any way he can and that he has to have a pay it forward mentality. Having that approach brings Dan a lot of joy. The more you help other people authentically with zero expectation of something in return the more you will get. The compounding of happiness is like the compounding of happiness in a financial institution. It builds year after year. It builds in those around you also. As you help more people those people feel the need to help more people and it has a cyclical effect.

The Four Types of People That You’re Going to Run Into

Bucket one is the narcissist. You’re only going to be of use to them if they can use you to get what they want. While it’s a bad experience it makes your antennae a little more acute and aware of the next narcissist that you run into.

Bucket two are the people who simply don’t connect the dots in relationships or enable others. That’s just who they are and you’re never going to have an impact on them and vice versa.

Bucket three are the folks that are kind and decent, but they don’t know how to pay it forward. The good news is they’re coachable. They’re capable of paying it forward, they just need a nudge.

Bucket four are the folks that pay it forward.

You want to surround yourself with folks that are in buckets three and four. The folks in buckets one and two will leave you emotionally drained. They’re not going to change their ways. They’re not capable of change because they don’t have empathy for other people.

The Difference Between Being Nice and Being Kind

Being nice can be faked. Being kind comes from your soul and your heart. Kindness has more depth in terms of the effort. Nice means you’ll help someone else if it meets one of your goals. Kindness goes a step further where it helps other people when it has nothing to do with your own needs or goals. It happens because you enjoy seeing others grow personally and professionally and it warms your heart. Kindness can be contagious.

How do you balance achieving your goals with paying it forward? Connect with other people who have a similar mindset. When you pay it forward you develop a reputation for paying it forward and the right people will be attracted to you. This includes your customers who will then introduce you to more people with a similar mindset and that’s the magic. People generally want to help those that help them, they want to stay in their good graces. Whatever the reason is it comes back around. If a person stays consistent with that mindset it makes the sales process all that much easier because you’re already developed trust. You have to focus on the relationship perspective.

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2001, Dan Horwich took over as President and Executive Director of CAMP IT Conferences.  Prior to joining CAMP IT, Dan held sales and sales management responsibilities at U.S. Robotics, 3Com, Mercantec, Spring Tide Networks and Lucent Technologies winning several sales and professional development awards.

In 2004, Dan designed the targeted conference format by adapting from larger conferences to more focused, intimate conferences. These targeted conferences provide attendees with a full day of content featuring speakers from IT organizations sharing insights as well as strategies and tactics that are incredibly effective.

Dan is an active networker focused on making a difference in the professional lives of IT practitioners. He has built a win-win climate for CAMP’s attendees, speakers and sponsors.

Dan graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BBA in Marketing and is active in many local professional and community organizations.  While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dan was Vice President of Marketing for Mu Kappa Tau, UW Madison’s Honorary Marketing Society. Prior to UW-Madison, Dan was very active in Junior Achievement, having been Vice President of Marketing for several years and winning a partial collegiate scholarship due to his accomplishments. Dan, and his wife, Jaimie, have two children and live in Chicago, Illinois.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn

Episode 76! Today’s big idea is that neuroscience can dramatically increase your marketing efforts’ ROI. My guest is Mike Mausteller. Mike is known for his brand building in the Fortune 500 Space.  Today he committed to supporting small and medium Private businesses, creating strategies that result in healthy businesses, enable the owner to scale or maximize their value in a sale.

First, we discuss…

Why You Should Mix Marketing and Neuroscience

We all think that we make logical decisions but that’s infrequent, maybe 1% to 5% of the time we are making logical decisions. The part of our brains that makes decisions is the amygdala and it doesn’t know logic and it doesn’t know or understand any language. With the amygdala you are seeing images and having feelings about a product, person or service. This can drive you to want to be closer to that product, person or service.

You can achieve that result by positioning yourself as helpful and a source of answers and NOT someone who is just looking to make their next dollar. They’ll associate your behavior with other pictures in their mind and memories and associate you as being good or bad.

The saying “a picture is worth 1,000 words” is very true. With the right image I can get you to feel 1,000 words all at once. This means you have to paint the proverbial picture for the people you want to be attracted to you.

The Power of “Because” in Marketing Conversations

When we say “because” we’re leading people towards a positive answer rather than giving them room to find something wrong with your conversation. When you say “because” you get people to accept your claims, whatever they may be. Think about it. It’s the difference between “I can help you grow your business” and “I can help you grow your business because I’ve helped over 30 entrepreneurs double their revenue”. The second is much more powerful because you stop their rejections before they have them.

We also discuss:

How Mike uses a picture on LinkedIn to get more clients in less time.

One of the most powerful words to use in your conversations and marketing copy that will attract people to you and your product or service.

How to accelerate the know, like, and trust cycle.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Mausteller is the President of Buckeye Business Performance, a business value acceleration firm located in Columbus, Ohio.  He also serves as a Board Member for a national group of volunteers who support start up business owners gain their initial traction and experienced business owners create organizations that manage themselves.

Mike works with Founders and Owners who want to grow their business ‘with the end in mind’, resulting in sustainable growth strategies and maximize their Exit.

Starting out as a Department Store Buyer and later Director, Mike was hired by Victoria’s Secret and assigned to the successful growth of a test concept named PINK.  Three years later the team was fully developed, and the concept realized $1B in annual sales.

After working on several other successful concepts with Victoria’s Secret he went on to work for other companies:  launching new products, brands, markets and categories of business.  Along the way, he has developed a dozen businesses from early stage, into the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

Connect with Mike here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mausteller/

Episode 75! Leadership and mentorship go hand in hand; it’s just a matter of sharpening your mentorship skills. That’s what I discuss in this episode with my guest, Oak McCulloch.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Oak McCulloch is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and the author of “Your Leadership Legacy: Becoming the Leader You Were Meant to Be.” Both his leadership presentation and his book are based on his 40+ years of leadership experience.

Are You a Leader or a Boss?

It’s important for leaders to be great mentors also. It’s their responsibility to produce the next generation of leaders. If you’re a leader and you’re not mentoring anybody then you’re not a leader, you’re a boss.

Mentoring someone to be a leader is different than general mentoring. If you’re mentoring someone to become a leader then you have to walk the walk of leadership, which includes making good decisions.

For Oak leadership is about servant leadership. He says, “When it comes to good leadership it isn’t about you and it’s all about you.” This means that if leadership is about the money, it’s not the right path to choose. If leadership is about helping other people, then it’s the path to take. It’s all about you in the sense of how you treat the people that work for you and how you empower them to become better and more productive leaders.

Mentoring Tips for Developing Better Leaders

There’s a difference between mentoring someone in your organization as opposed to someone outside of your organization. If you’re mentoring someone within your organization then you must include them in the decision-making process and show them what that looks like. For either scenario you must build trust with your mentee. The first way to do this is to get to know that person as a person, not just a position or title.

In this episode we also discuss:

How long mentoring sessions should be and why.

How to approach someone to become your mentor.

What your first mentoring meeting should look like.

What components are involved to make a great mentoring relationship.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LTC McCulloch retired from the Army in September 2009 with over 23 years of active service and joined the staff at the Bay Area Food Bank as the Associate Director.  He was also the Vice Chair for Military Affairs on the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Mobile Rotary International Club.  LTC McCulloch left the food bank in December 2010 to become the Senior Military Science Instructor and recruiter for the Army ROTC program at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. In his 9 years at Stetson, the program grew from 15 Cadets to over 100 Cadets.

In October 2013, he became the Recruiting Operations Officer for the Eagle Battalion Army ROTC program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where he has more than doubled the size of the program in 6 years.  Cadet Command selected LTC McCulloch as the top recruiting officer, out of 274 recruiters, for 2019.  LTC Oak McCulloch published his first book in February 2021 – “Your Leadership Legacy: Becoming the Leader You Were Meant to Be”.

Connect with Oak!

www.ltcoakmcculloch.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oakland-mcculloch-34293256/

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/ltcoakmcculloch/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LtcOakland

Facebook Business:  https://www.facebook.com/LTCOakMcCulloch

Service Professionals Network (SPN):

https://serviceprofessionalsnetwork.com/members/oakland-mcculloch/

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Ep1eqF3o0X5CBamtVgClQ

Episode 74!

In the world of sales and marketing there are many viewpoints about how to do both successfully. My guest, Mike Savage, believes that there are only three ways to grow your business and have marketing and sales play well together.

Mike works with 6-figure entrepreneurs who are hell-bent on getting to 7-figures without sacrificing their health, their relationships, or their happiness.  One of Mike’s companies amassed more than $250 Million in global sales to the world's leading companies including Walmart, Target, Kohl's, Sam's Club, BJ's, Costco, Dick’s Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, QVC & Amazon.

Sales and Marketing

There’s sales and then there’s marketing. People often get them confused and disagree about how to align them. Mike explains this with a unique analogy. Sales and marketing are different. Dating is marketing. The guy is the product. He’s marketing himself to the man or woman that he wants to be with during the dating phase of the relationship. When he proposes he’s making the sale.

Your product or service needs to be unique in the marketplace and you have to create ways to introduce your product or service to your ideal client. That’s marketing in the business world. The more you’ve nurtured that client with great strategic marketing, the easier the sale is.

Mike goes on to say that…

There are Three Ways to Grow Your Business

Most people think that if they want to grow their business, they have to get new clients. You shouldn’t start there, especially if you’re an established business.

The first way is to increase the average order. Go to the people that are already buying from you. They are more likely to buy more from you because they know, like and trust you.

In this episode we also discuss:

Ways to successfully nurture relationships with your ideal clients.

The number one goal of strategic marketing.

The other two ways to grow your business.

Examples of how each of the three ways have been used in business and how you can use them in your business.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” here!

 

 

 

 

About The Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Savage is a serial entrepreneur, inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur coach, angel investor, and CEO of The Savage Secrets, a rapidly growing high-performance organization obsessed with helping entrepreneurs & CEOs build inspiring companies and, simultaneously, live their dream life. Having built several multi-million-dollar companies, from scratch, over the past 30 years, Mike is battle tested from the school of hard knocks and fully understands the emotional & financial roller coaster of building companies.

One of Mike’s companies amassed more than $250 Million in global sales to the world's leading companies including Walmart, Target, Kohl's, Sam's Club, BJ's, Costco, Dick’s Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, QVC & Amazon. The company started with one product, one idea, A BIG ASS DREAM and ultimately grew into a 50-employee business with $25M in annual sales. Over the years, Mike has traveled the world speaking on mindset and entrepreneur- ship at industry events, annual meetings, and nationally renowned Colleges & Universities. Mike’s trademarked philosophy, The Entrepreneur’s Trilogy™, is based on the belief that building a company should be a passionate, philosophical journey comprised of equal parts HEARTset, MINDset, and SKILLset, and not a life filled with frustration, overwhelm, and isolation.

When Mike is not busy helping CEO’s and entrepreneurs achieve their highest levels of personal and professional performance, he enjoys spending time with his wife Donna working out, mountain biking, kayaking, traveling, or walking around Buffumville Lake in Charlton, MA with their 2 dogs Duncan & Bella. He and Donna also love watching their daughter Bailey & son Brant participate in their college sports. Mike is also a rabid Boston sports fan! Go Celtics, Bruins, Patriots and Red Sox!

Learn more about Mike and connect with him!

https://thesavagesecrets.com/

https://www.thesavagesecrets.com/triple-threat-replay

Upcoming Masterclass: https://thesavagesecrets.com/scoreboard

Follow Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-savage-secrets/