Mental Fitness and Neuroleadership for Sales and Business Professionals (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Wendy Swire discusses mental fitness and neuro-leadership for sales and business professionals. Wendy Swire has coached leaders in the US and globally for two decades. She is the co-author of the highly acclaimed book Anytime Coaching: Unleashing Employee Performance and a thought leader in the field of neuro-leadership.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Neuro-leadership as the connection between science and leadership
How understanding our brain helps us control our instincts
The importance of mental fitness training

Neuro-Leadership

Neuro-leadership is at the intersection of science, leadership, and sales. It is about taking the latest research and cutting-edge neuroscience and applying it to fields of leadership management, including sales. It deals with things like resilience, positive emotions, brain health, and various other topics.

Neuroscience has been gaining in popularity recently, with many people talking about it. The reason it has gained so much traction lately is that people are beginning to understand that the brain is the most powerful information transfer system on the planet.

Controlling the Lizard Brain

There is nothing more powerful than your brain, so beginning to understand the capability of this three-pound mass that we all have can be incredibly insightful. So many things can be tied to brain science, including why we keep doing things over and over again, creating both good and bad habits.

Learning more about the brain can teach us how to control the reptile, primitive part of our brain and instincts. Just a little bit of science explains a heck of a lot, enabling us to be at our peak in terms of performance.

Mental Fitness

Mental pressure and mental health issues seem to be bubbling up to the surface more than ever before, perhaps spurred on by the pandemic. Something like one in four people suffers from loneliness and anxiety — these are unprecedented numbers.

We can think of mental fitness along the same lines as physical fitness. To remain physically fit, we go to the gym, lift weights, run on the treadmill, etc. We know that these activities are good for our heart, mood, and brain. Wendy Swire wants us all to think of mental fitness as the equivalent of this. You have to train your brain to withstand life challenges with the right mindset.

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.

The Concepts of Adaptability and Being an Infinite Thought Leader (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Tarun Kumar discusses the concepts of adaptability and being an infinite thought leader. Tarun Kumar is a professional speaker, author, and infinite thought leader. He is also a former army colonel, so he brings all of that experience to bear.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The concept of being an infinite thought leader
How the military has thought Tarun to be adaptable and think on his feet
The fact successful business leaders share the same traits as successful military leaders

Infinite Thought Leader

An infinite thought leader is not constrained by the environment. The army teaches you that we are all looking at possibilities and that opportunity will not knock on your door unless you build the door first.

We miss many opportunities because we do not have that kind of vision and mindset. When Tarun talks about being an infinite thought leader, he is talking about the possibility that we as individuals have. Human beings are the best gift that God could create, and we have infinite potential. We need to look for opportunities, we need to look for possibilities, and that is what makes us as humans so great.

Thinking on Your Feet

John hasn’t been in the military himself, but he has talked to plenty of people who have. He has found that one of the things that you become very good at is making decisions and figuring out a way forward when you don’t have all the information at hand. Tarun Kumar agrees with this observation.

In whichever military, whichever army, your best laid-out plans go out the window upon first contact with the enemy. So, despite having worked out many contingencies, you often find yourself all of a sudden grappling with something altogether different, something you have not prepared for. This is where your adaptability and ability to work in an unpredictable environment come in.

Leadership Skills

In the military, you are what you are and what your environment makes you because you have to think on your feet and possibly look after the people around you. The same holds for the corporate world.

As a leader in the military, when the going gets tough or when you engage with the enemy, people are looking to you for answers or looking to see how you will react. This is the same in business — people tend to look to their leaders, expecting them to have the answers.

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.

The Secrets Behind Putting Yourself Under the Right Amount of Pressure to Thrive (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Mags Bell discusses her formula Cut, Polish, and Reset Your Inner Diamond Keeping You Transparent and Clear on Your Goals and Values. Mags Bell is an elite executive master coach with 20 years of experience imparting leadership expertise, and she is also the director of a speaking and coaching practice.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Finding the right amount of pressure to create your diamond
Why do we feel addicted to pressure
The problem with being distracted and unable to relax

Pressure Creates Diamonds

Diamonds are made of carbon, just like humans, and the pressure they’re under makes them into diamonds and makes them valuable. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure in business nowadays, regardless of whether you’re on the sales floor or you’re the head of a company.

Pressure can go one way or the other — it can make an amazing diamond, but if pushed too far, it can also destroy whatever it grabs hold of. Mags Bell is interested in the balance of getting the “diamond” out under pressure, which compelled her to create the Cut, Polish, and Reset formula.

Addiction to Pressure

We also sometimes get addicted to pressure, or we feel like if there’s not a ton of pressure on our shoulders, we’re slacking or not reaching our potential. Not only do we put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves, but we’re also not good at separating good pressure from bad pressure.

This leads to us living a life under stress, which means we often don’t know how to relax, even when we think we’re resting. Everything that Mags talks about is about finding the balance in your life to find that diamond within yourself.

Distraction

Nowadays, people are so overwhelmed, they have so many distractions, and so many things are invading their heads at all times. Rather than being busier than ever, we’re all more distracted than ever.

A lot of our stress is self-inflicted as a result of our own behavior, and it takes some discipline to start creating the space where you can have good pressure, but also where you can remove the bad.

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.

Transforming Our World Through Human Transformation (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Philipp Kristian discusses human transformation. Philipp Kristian is an international keynote speaker on the Future of Trust, Hybrid Work, and Digital Innovation. He is also a TEDx speaker and the author of RESET and The Trust Economy.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The critical role of human transformation
Why we need to work on humanizing our interactions post-pandemic
How we must approach change from the inside out

Digital vs Human Transformation

We hear a lot of talk about digital transformation and the use of technology and automation to increase efficiency. However, we don’t tend to hear as much about human transformation. If we look at the past few years especially, technology that was supposed to help us has almost gotten in our way.

This is not the fault of humans but the result of the fact that we’ve built our technology ecosystems around a monolithic view of organizations. As everyone intuitively knows, organizations are not very human, so we are now faced with, after emerging from the pandemic, losing the human touch in many aspects.

Humanizing Interactions

With the benefit of hindsight and insight, we can bring back what all of us value the most, which is humanizing our interactions — particularly those at work — because these human interactions are sorely missed. They can be done online, and they can be done virtually, but we have to plan and design for them.

What Philipp Kristian means by human transformation is to kind of shift the perspective inwards for a moment. For certain logistical reasons, we were all confronted with ourselves in different ways in the last 24 months, so there’s a nugget of wisdom to be gained from that.

Change in Perspective

We now look at the world differently. For example, we used to look at sales, customer centricity and digital transformation with an externalization perspective. We thought that we could just change the environment, change things on the outside, and things would click into place.

Yet, time and time again, we see that things don’t change because, for some reason, people stay the same. Therefore, human transformation is an invitation towards introspection — to realize that organizations have a chance of transforming only when we as humans change.

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 Sell Innovation With a Strategic Narrative (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Guillaume Wiatr discusses how to sell innovation with a strategic narrative. Guillaume Wiatr is the principal and founder of MetaHelm. He teaches CEOs, leadership teams, and entrepreneurs how to create a strategic initiative.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The difference between a story and a narrative
Why narratives are more important now than ever before
How narratives are conveyed in the business world

Story vs Narrative

If you look in the dictionary, “story” and “narrative” have very similar definitions. Still, there is one slight nuance in the term “narrative” that makes a big difference in the business context in terms of launching new products and ventures. Namely, a narrative conveys a particular point of view.

When we talk about a narrative in an industry, we refer to a set or system of conversations. The fact that it is a system means that you can break it down, reconstruct it, and shape it strategically for the benefit of something you are putting out on the market.

Importance of the Narrative

Things in the business world have evolved to the point where a narrative is more important than ever before. Part of the issue nowadays is that people have this perception that products and services are heavily commoditized and that they’re pretty much all the same.

Therefore, the narrative that you present and the experience of working with your customers and listening to them are the things that capture people. These things have come to the fore as being more critical than ever.

Higher Purpose

Narratives are conveyed through telling stories and the living of said stories. Companies have shifted their spending considerably towards experiences, including sponsoring and supporting events representing their purpose and message.

On the other hand, people want to work with companies that invite them to their narrative. We want to be part of a larger idea and belong to a group of people who share the same values and purpose. This trend existed before, but it has been magnified during the pandemic, as evidenced by the Great Resignation and other similar shifts.

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.

Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Darcy Eikenberg discusses her new book called Red Cape Rescue: Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job. Darcy Eikenberg wrote this book because, as a coach and teacher, she watched too many talented professionals just like her waste their time and energy feeling like they had no control over their lives and work.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Whether changing your job is the solution to your problems
How you can take back control of your life without changing everything
The fact that work is often blamed for other issues in our lives

Change

Most people reach a stage of their career where they just think that everything around them sucks and they want to leave. Darcy is saying in her book that, although this might be a good time to switch careers, maybe you can also rescue what you have without leaving.

Our workplaces are so organic, with changes happening all the time. However, different changes affect us in different ways, so whenever we hit some kind of speedbump, we find ourselves stopping and thinking about whether the situation we’re in is what we really want. This happens in every single person’s career and often more than once.

Taking Back Control

Conventional wisdom tells us that when we do hit a speedbump, we should change something. For most people, this means it is time to look for another job. But the truth is, when we really dig into it and take it apart a little more, there are often maybe one or two core things that you have more control over than you ever realized.

This is the pattern that Darcy saw working with her clients, and she started to put together her ideas in the book around how you can take back control without having to change everything in your life.

Work as a Scapegoat

We often bring so many different things into our work life, and work can sometimes become a convenient scapegoat for all of those issues. We’re inclined to blame all of our problems on our job rather than looking at what is going on below the surface.

Darcy has seen people go through this pattern multiple times, quitting their jobs and using their skills to find something else. However, six to nine months in, the same issues often keep coming up, so nothing changes in the long run.

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.

Focusing on 4 Key Principles Can Improve Performance and Sales (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Brandon Fluharty discusses his personal operating system as the antidote to hustle. Brandon Fluharty has done business with the world’s largest brands, and he has sold over $50 million in SaaS deals using conversational AI. However, he decided to ditch the “hustle culture” and create a unique personal operating system from the ground up. This system has been designed to sustain peak performance without sacrificing health and wellbeing.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

Brandon Fluharty’s motivation to create a personal operating system
How the lockdown helped Brandon improve his performance
The lessons we can learn from professional athletes

Offset Circadian Rhythm

The onset of the pandemic drove Brandon to look at creating a personal operating system. Before the pandemic, working in strategic selling, he was on a plane just about every week.

He would be in a different time zone every single week for three to four months at a stretch, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to travel across the country for an hour-long meeting, only to turn around and come right back. When you’re in this situation, your circadian rhythm is off, and your sleep is off, meaning your performance is also off.

Set Schedule

So, the lockdown reminded Brandon of a time in his early adulthood when he was an aspiring soccer player in Eastern Europe and had a set schedule every day — getting up, going to bed, eating, and training at the same time. This consistent schedule allowed Brandon to get 1% better every day as a player.

When the pandemic hit, and he had the opportunity to go back to a set schedule, he started digging deep on this topic. He started looking at whether his sleep pattern could have a measurable impact on his sales, and he discovered that it absolutely did.

Recovery

In sports, when people are preparing for peak performance, they’re not going all out all the time, the way we’ve been taught to do, especially in corporate America. They don’t do that because they realize that you can overstress your body and that recovery time is crucial.

We can learn so many lessons from professional athletes in this regard, yet in the corporate world, we’re still addicted to constant motion, working all the hours we’re given, and just being on a hamster wheel.

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.

The Shift & Lift Mindset for Change (video)

In this Expert Insight Interview, Trish Jenkins discusses the Shift and Lift mindset for change. Trish Jenkins is a motivational speaker, author, and consultant.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

The basis of the Shift and Lift mindset
How Trish Jenkins’ time in prison taught her that the strongest bars are in our mind
The fact that every choice has consequences

Shift and Lift

The Shift and Lift mindset is based on an experience that hopefully most people haven’t had. Namely, Trish Jenkins somewhat unwittingly ended up incarcerated for a time, which has massively influenced her worldview.

In her opinion, the strongest prison bars holding us back are in our heads. Regardless of whether most people would agree with this, it is clear that we tend to lock ourselves in these prisons in our minds. These include a lack of confidence, excessive worry, fear of failure, fear of success, and many others.

Treasures of Darkness

In her own words, Trish Jenkins broke the law, and if she could go back and change that, she would. This is, unfortunately, not possible, but she has managed to find treasure in the darkness — in fact, “Treasures of Darkness” is the title of her book.

The good that has come out of her entire ordeal has been tremendous, and she loves her life now, and perhaps more importantly, she loves the person she has become. However, she didn’t become the person she is today because she went to prison — she became that person because of her response to being sent to jail.

Choices and Consequences

Most of us have a get-out-of-jail-free card. We can quit our jobs, walk out of our relationships, throw our hands up in the air, blame the world, and go do something else. When that is removed as an option, as it was for Trish, one needs to make a significant adjustment in terms of their psyche, understanding that they have no choice but to deal with the situation at hand.

If you leave your job, you’ll have to find another one to put food on the table. You might not be able to control your environment, but you always have a choice of how you respond to it.

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.