The Misconceptions About Highly Sensitive People (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Heather Dominick discusses whether you can be highly successful and highly sensitive at the same time. Heather Dominick is the founder of A Course In Business Miracles. Since 2010, she has trained highly sensitive entrepreneurs and leaders to do things differently by working less and making more social impact and a higher income.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The misconceptions about highly sensitive people
How the phrase “highly sensitive” was coined
How high sensitivity can be a strength rather than a weakness

Misconceptions

We often think that the most successful people are somehow less sensitive, hard-nosed, and can roll with the punches and keep going. This probably puts many people off trying to go down leadership paths, etc.

When you don’t understand how to work with a nervous system wired differently from the majority of the population, it can create a lot of havoc. But when you do learn how to work with it, it can work to support you in every role, including leadership.

Harnessing the Superpower

The phrase “highly sensitive” was coined as a result of comprehensive research, primarily during the 1990s. In short, what it means to be highly sensitive is that your nervous system is wired to take in stimulation at a much higher degree than someone who is not highly sensitive, and only 20% of people are born this way.

The key to harnessing your high sensitivity is whether you are trained on how to work with your nervous system or not. If you’re not, which is the case for many highly sensitives, you will likely feel some internal sense of being different or less than. Without the help or support to put the puzzle pieces together, you could have a lot of anxiety.

Highly Sensitive Strengths

When you learn how to hone and intentionally use your highly sensitive nature, that gives you access to what Heather refers to as the Top 12 Highly Sensitive Strengths. For example, those who are highly sensitive have a high level of intuitive ability and empathy, as well as other strengths such as deep thinking, deep listening, deep feeling, etc.

When you learn how to have those strengths working for you, they can be tremendous assets for leadership in any regard. This is particularly true when it comes to leadership roles in the world of self-employment.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

How The Feeling Of Rejection Keeps Us Down (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Gladys Agwai discusses her book Dumped, Not Dumped On: How to Stop Reliving the Negative Impact of Rejection in Your Life, Business, and Career. Gladys Agwai is a professional business strategist who supports clarity of purpose and objective with an effective plan to execute confidently. Her company, Ignite Within, is a transformative coaching and consulting firm.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

How the feeling of rejection keeps us down
Why we need to understand that getting dumped often hides a great opportunity
How adversity often produces the most teachable moments

Getting Dumped

We have all experienced being dumped in some capacity. Some of us have lost jobs, and others have lost marriages, partners, clients, etc. There is no salesperson out there who a client has not rejected.

Gladys understands that the feeling of getting dumped sucks, no matter what the reason. It hurts, and often it doesn’t feel justified or fair. But she believes that there is an opportunity within any time you get dumped, regardless of who dumps you. However, we get so emotional with the feeling of rejection that we don’t see this opportunity.

Perspective

When you get rejected, it is almost impossible not to think that there’s something wrong with you and start defining your self-worth by it. When this happens to salespeople, it often inhibits them from going after other clients, especially higher-level ones.

The sad thing is that sometimes it takes years and years to understand that a negative situation we experienced in the past led us on a path to success later on. It takes a prism of time for us to realize that rejections carry opportunities within them and change the trajectory of our lives and careers.

Teachable Moments

It is essential to understand what you need and what you want and not allow the feeling of rejection to keep you from getting what you want. Your sales objectives equate to money in your pocket, enabling you to live the life you want to live.

We should never allow other people to be able to keep us from whatever it is that we say we want. Our most difficult moments often provide us with some of the most extraordinary life education we will ever receive.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Productivity Hacks for Leaders (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Benjamin Friedman discusses productivity hacks for leaders. Benjamin Friedman has spent over 18 years facilitating scaling and growth, often leading to exit events. He has overseen five successful M&A transactions in the last ten years, and now he helps advise people on the subject.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The term “productivity hack” and how Benjamin Friedman uses it
The importance of taking a step back
The power of a strong support network

Productivity Hacks

The term “hack” is often perceived in the wrong way, implying that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. However, Benjamin Friedman applies the word in terms of improvement. Everyone can be more productive in certain aspects of their life, and he looks to use “hacks” to their productivity.

He works with founders who are constantly trying to grow their businesses and have to think about how to scale from where they are to where they want to be. This is one of the most complex parts of being a leader, especially for small businesses.

Stepping Back

It is so easy to get caught up in what’s going on, become overwhelmed, and go the opposite direction of where you want to go, becoming less productive throughout the day. Instead of being at hyper-speed all the time, sometimes it makes sense to pull back and spend some time calibrating where you are and where you’re headed.

This may sound counterintuitive, but Benjamin encourages founders to do it whether things are going well or if there’s been a bit of trouble and they need to reassess the situation. Stepping away from the day-to-day and recalibrating how things are going in the moment is crucial to your ability to be productive.

Support Network

We live in a world where everybody feels completely overwhelmed, and people feel like they’re busier than they’ve ever been. So, taking some time to assess your situation with a mentor, coach, or even a business partner is incredibly important.

Doing everything on your own is extremely difficult, and it is always better to have a third party who is invested in your success. It is essential to have people in your life who support you no matter what — this is typically what we get from friends and family. However, it is also important to find people who challenge you in a supportive, constructive way.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

How to Speak a Business Owner Language (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Amy Schultz discusses how to speak in a language that is relevant to a business owner. Amy Schultz is the president of a company called LeadSeen, and a sales, marketing, and ads genius.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

How business owners think and why marketers must speak their language
Amy’s background in finance and how it has helped her develop as a marketer
Why marketers need to understand their clients’ positions on the digital landscape

Marketing Speak

Many companies hire marketing agencies or marketing professionals to cover their marketing needs because they feel like they need a professional to be able to create “marketing speak.” Amy Schultz encourages a different approach — she doesn’t focus on creating marketing content or speaking in a marketing-oriented language. Instead, she focuses on talking in a language relevant to a business owner.

From what Amy understands about how business owners think, everything needs to tie back to revenue. The goal is to grow revenue, not lose money, so you have to speak their language, breaking down “marketing speak” into a language business owners can understand. This is what she teaches other marketing professionals to help them close more business.

Business Owners’ Language

Amy started as a commercial/business banker, so she has a background in finance. While in that position, she was the trusted advisor to all of the business owners in her portfolio. They would come to her for help with insurance, marketing, ways to purchase a fleet of vehicles, etc.

She quickly realized that the biggest need that her clients had was on the marketing side of things because they didn’t understand the new digital world that had evolved for all of us. Almost all of the deals that marketers get a chance to look at can be closed by speaking a business owner’s language.

Understanding the Landscape

We are bombarded with marketing today. You can’t go anywhere without being targeted by ads through your email or social media. Because of all this noise, we tend to block out most of our received inputs. This means the only way a marketer can get through to you is by showing you something that resonates with relevance to your business.

Typical marketers try to develop services and present them to business owners. They don’t realize that they are missing the point of “why” they are recommending certain things. It is crucial to help the business owner understand their position in the digital landscape and why they need your services.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Why Failure Is The Biggest Catalyst For Change (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Alina Timofeeva discusses failure. Alina Timofeeva is a multi-award-winning female leader in cloud, data, and digital. She is also a TEDx speaker, mentor, and podcaster. Her TEDx talk Fail but Never Give Up has over 355,000 views, is getting translated into 30 languages, and is in the top 10 world’s most-watched TEDx speeches.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Why failure can be the biggest catalyst for change
How to take action even when you don’t feel like it
Getting past the obstacles of failure and rejection

Failure

Failure is a loaded word, and people interpret it in many different ways. Although it has the same meaning, it has a different connotation for most people. For Alina, failure is when you want to do something, but you don’t get the outcome you wanted to achieve.

In her talk, she put out a lot of arguments that failure is an opportunity to grow, so instead of looking at it as a setback, you can see it as a way to develop and become a better person. Our biggest lessons often come from failure.

Action

It often takes hitting rock bottom for us to make real, fundamental changes, but not everybody is equipped to do that. So, how can people reorient their attitude to failure and look at it and embrace it as a learning opportunity or an opportunity to change and grow?

For Alina, the answer to this question lies in action. People tend to wait for a sign to take action, and she believes that this is the wrong approach. Do not wait for inspiration; take action, even if you just take small steps.

Overcoming the Pain

Sometimes people allow themselves to think that other people have a better idea of how good they are and set the agenda for their life going forward. Instead of allowing that to happen, successful people look for the next best step to move forward.

The important, and most challenging part of this entire idea, is that it is pretty hard to find this change in your mindset. For example, when Alina moved to the UK, she applied for 500 jobs and got declined for 497 of them. No matter how persistent you are and how upbeat your personality is, getting rejected 497 times still hurts. Getting past this pain is what separates the biggest winners from the rest.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Bulletproof Selling: Systemizing Sales for the Battlefield of Business (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Shawn Rhodes discusses his book Bulletproof Selling: Systemizing Sales for the Battlefield of Business. Shawn Rhodes is a global expert on pivoting in challenging environments. As a war correspondent with the US Marine Corps, Shawn traveled to more than two dozen countries learning how elite teams execute their most demanding missions.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

How Shawn Rhodes got the idea to write his book Bulletproof Selling
Shawn’s experience with the US Marine Corps
Why he thinks US Marines are “bulletproof”

Living with the Marines

Shawn’s role as a war correspondent was to embed inside combat teams as a US Marine. He was enlisted and carried a rifle alongside his camera and notepad. His task was to go around and try to understand how the US Marines could accomplish what most people consider to be impossible.

These men and women routinely volunteer to go into a building where they know people are waiting to do them harm, even though 50% of them will not leave that building under their own power.

Why Marines Are Special

As Shawn observed the US Marines across multiple combat tours, he realized that there was something special about these men and women. Not because they were incredibly brilliant, not because they were Mensa-level intelligent, and not even because they were exceptionally experienced — some were only 18 or 19 years old.

These folks are bulletproof. They know where a potential enemy will be hiding, and they know how not to injure each other as they go through with live weapons, grenades, rockets, and ammunition inside these tightly packed houses.

Bulletproof System

Finally, Shawn figured out the reason why US Marines were bulletproof. It was not because they had been hit by a meteor or bitten by a radioactive spider. These high-performing teams were bulletproof because of all of the times their predecessors hadn’t been.

They had a system of processing and debriefing each mission. Instead of just hanging up the phone and entering a quick note into the CRM like most salespeople today, the Marines analyze in detail what went well on each mission, what went wrong, what they could do better, what their company could help them with next time, and so on. This is something all sales teams can benefit from.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

What it Takes to Start a Sustainable Fashion Brand (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Shannon Lohr discusses what it takes to start a sustainable fashion brand. Shannon Lohr works with entrepreneurs from all over the globe to launch sustainable and ethical fashion brands the right way from the start.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The concept of sustainable and ethical fashion
How Shannon got her start in the industry
What aspiring fashion entrepreneurs should focus on as their first steps

Sustainable and Ethical Fashion

The terms “sustainable” and “ethical” have taken on a life of their own. Back when Shannon started in the fashion industry, it was almost an oxymoron to say “sustainable fashion,” but it is a huge buzzword today. It refers to thinking about the supply chain and how your clothes are made.

A sustainable fashion brand uses potentially sustainable fabrics, natural or recycled fibers, upcycled fabrics, etc. On the ethical side of things, sustainable brands try to work with factories that pay their workers a fair and living wage. These are just a couple of the factors that contribute to this idea. There is also the clothes’ lifecycle, packaging, and other things that go into making a product more sustainable for the planet.

The Early Days

Shannon started a fashion brand back in 2010, wanting to do it sustainably and ethically, but she didn’t really know what that would entail. She dove into the research, talking to everyone from farmers in Missouri to professors in Texas and eco-friendly supermodels in Brooklyn.

She realized that fashion is a very problematic industry, so the first step she decided to take was to localize the supply chain. All of her brand’s fabrics, materials, manufacturing, and packaging were sourced within a 50-mile radius within the US, which was unheard of at the time.

Finding your Niche

The fashion industry is crowded and highly competitive, especially for start-up brands that probably do not have the venture capital behind them and do not have endless resources and money.

So, the fastest way to find your customer and hit the ground running as soon as you come out onto the market is to figure out what problem you’re solving for your target demographic. Identify who your niche, ideal customer is, and what problem you intend to solve for them.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Have the Right Mindset and Breaking the Negative Cycle (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Sallie Wagner discusses building resilience with MSG (Mindset, Skillset, and Get Off Your Asset). Sallie Wagner is a best-selling author and speaker. She is your life consultant and alchemist, guiding you to identify and get rid of habits and behaviors that you keep trying to change, fears and phobias that drain your power, and liming beliefs and decisions that no longer move you in the direction of your goals.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The MSG (Mindset, Skillset, and Get Off Your Asset) approach
How building a skillset can help us change our mindset
What it takes to build the right mindset and break the negative cycle

MSG

Mindset, Skillset, and Get Off Your Asset, or MSG, are concepts that encapsulate a lot of fundamental coaching principles and life principles. It all starts with mindset — how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.

We have a lot of limiting beliefs, and our decisions are often driven by negative talk that goes on in our heads that tells us we can’t do this or we shouldn’t do that. This is something that we must overcome through our mindset.

Skillset-Mindset Connection

Sometimes we need a new skillset to have the right mindset because we’re not always taught to have an attitude that will move us forward. Building a skillset stack enables us to have multiple complementary skills to do what we want in life.

Taking action is a significant skill, which is where Get Off Your Asset comes from. How many chronic procrastinators do you know? Perhaps you are one. It is a professional skill to take action, and all three of the concepts encapsulated in the MSG approach are necessary if we want to achieve what we want in life.

Breaking the Cycle

Having the right mindset is not just about thinking happy thoughts like Peter Pan. There is a lot of work involved in it. The first step is being mindful of what we’re thinking and what our current mindset is. We have a lot of negative talk going on in the back of our minds, and we often don’t even notice it because we’re focusing on what is in front of us at any given moment.

Just like apps running in the background of your phone, these negative thoughts “drain your battery” and slow things down. We need to become aware of these thoughts, understand what feelings come from them, understand the actions that come from those feelings, and interrupt the cycle to make a real change in our lives.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.