Life Lesson

Despite What They Say

Garth Beyer

Now is NOT the best time to become a Financial Adviser.

I have always loved hearing “Now is the greatest time to be doing *insert any career here.*” Simply because, if you believe it’s the greatest time, then it is. If you go into something thinking it will be easy, chances are it will be…hard. BUT, it will be much easier than if you go into something thinking it will be hard.

Zig always said, Positive thinking won’t let you do anything, But it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.

Lately the biggest reference is that Now is the greatest time to start a business in this down economy. I however, have been mentally fixed on an echo of “Now is the greatest time to become a Financial Adviser!” Why? Simply because of World Financial Group/Transamerica Financial Advisers which I mention in my post The First Hand Fails: This Is How The Second Hand Succeeds In Sales

It wasn’t until the second time that I watched and listened to WFG/Transamerica’s introduction-presentation that I noticed a flaw. The flaw was in their backing of their statement, “Now is the perfect time to become a financial adviser, there has not been a more perfect time.” They began their backup of the statement by introducing a timeline of the baby boomer generation, first explaining how when the baby boomers began popping that the baby food business rocketed, then the car dealership business sky scraped when all the baby boomers started to turn 16, then real estate shot straight up when they wanted to buy their houses, and now they are saying that financial advising is going to explode because all the baby boomers are turning 65+ and need to have advisers to make sure their money lasts them until their deathbed.

Do you see the flaw? I could not stop thinking how slow minded WFG/Transamerica was in their sales presentation to not catch both their worst and biggest selling point. If you are reading this, then you know that very few baby boomers are going to seek financial advice this late in life. They have gone their entire lives without it, earned and worked hard and will not spend money to have someone else tell them how they should manage their money. With that, baby boomers are the most stubborn people on the planet . Not to mention, the baby boomers will be dyeing off soon, so how does a dead persons money get to you as a financial adviser? It doesn’t. This was one of the biggest mistakes of WFG/Transamerica.

The second biggest mistake was that they used the wrong example to really persuade people to take up a Financial Adviser career. Give me a shot, and if I don’t have you agreeing with me in just a few sentences, tell me so.

Maybe you have read that the baby boomers will be  inheriting over 11 trillion dollars over the next 20 or so years, by the time they have this money they will either definitely not want advising on it, they are going to live out their last days in glory or they won’t end up getting what they expected with the lack of funds for pensions, the failing of social security, the fact they will work until “the day they drop”, etc, the list goes on, or the last option, they will be dead by the time they receive the extra money. Which leads me to my next reasoning.

In the world of financial advising, baby boomers are a lost cause, but not my generation (Y) and the generation after (Z). They are not. They are the hot button of financial advising. We are looking at two generations of poorly money management educated groups of young adults. Plus, you take the 11 trillion dollars baby boomers are getting and roll it over the second exchange of wealth to generation Y and Z and now you will have over 22 trillion dollars being handed down.

Even more so, my generation and generation Z are scared out of our freaking minds that the economy is going to blow up and become the next great disaster – the great depression’s depression. It is in that idea (fear) that Financial Advising will be the most prominent and income enriching career in the next 5 to 15 years. For once in time, Financial Advising will be looked on as a necessity and will receive the spotlight for its educating purposes. Financial Advisers will be able to teach those who will be handling the 22+ trillion dollars how to manage it for the next 50+ years instead of teaching 65 year old’s how to manage it for 5 years.

And I will end with, So what if teaching the youth how to manage money only earns Financial Advisers a large income for 5-10 years until money management becomes a part of the learning process in school and at home? With the average rate of people only staying at their jobs for 5 years before getting a new job, I see it as a perfect way to make big $$$ in a short period of time, teach the next generations money management so the world can prosper, and move to the next career path you want to try!

Final breakdown,

  • Now is NOT the best time to be a Financial Adviser
  • In 5-15 years will be the BEST time to be a Financial Adviser which includes being a teacher, a world changer, an economy improver, and all the other hats you get to wear
  • In a world that is set on fast pace, Financial Advising will make you money quick and allow you to move on to other things that you may really be passionate about.

 

Stay Positive and Do What YOU Think Is Best, Not What Someone Else Thinks Because It Will Always Be The Perfect Time

Garth E. Beyer

 

 

 

 

It’s Better To Love and Not Know It

Garth Beyer

It’s a terrible tragedy when you realize that you love something. So don’t. (This excludes people).

Excludes people? Yea, when you recognize that you love something, you doubt you deserve it and begin searching for its faults.

Maybe that is why you loved your job at first and then you began liking it less and less. Onto the next one,

you find the learning experience of a new job amazing. I sure do, I am sure we all do, it’s in our nature. We love learning new things, love challenges, love accomplishments and that is exactly what new jobs offer. THEN we reach the level of “love”. This level is right around the point that we know enough to rock out a day at work, but we still don’t know enough to not ask any questions. But this bliss is momentary because it is at this time when we realize that we love our jobs.

Something begins badgering our brains and tugging our hearts. I call it “doubt”, doubt that you deserve what you are getting. Doubt that you deserve to love your job. Why we immediately begin doubting why we deserve something so great? I do not know. I do know that when we begin to doubt, we look for our/the jobs faults.

We begin to nitpick and find anything to use as a reason to not love our job. And from there, it is all downhill. When we get in the mindset of looking for faults and surrounding ourselves with negativity, the only way is down.

And until we can truly accept that we deserve the best and we deserve to love our jobs, we are all better off making sure that we do not realize that we love our job in the first place.

 

Stay Positive and Ignorant, For It Is Bliss

Garth E. Beyer

 

 

S.A.D Your Darkest Cloud #TM

Garth Beyer

5 minutes and 33 seconds – the length of my 2nd Toastmasters speech titled S.A.D Your Darkest Cloud

“I liked your creative conclusion and 3 point organization. The organization made it easy to follow and you referenced it frequently”

“>Like the blend between facts and ideas > engaging > at times you didn’t seem too sure of yourself which halted your flow (mostly at beginning) > good hand gestures, eye contact, but your legs were static”

“Good job on giving the background of the 2nd study – slow down a bit when reading the studies and during the rest of the speech. Great ending! – Loved the ‘Life Weights…’ – Great job w/ speaking clearly and in an audible tone”

“The speech was delivered well and i will probably remember a lot of what you talked [about]”

“Great job! Well laid out topics w/ great summary, using personal experience really helped people relate. Good suggestions for how to get out of the depression!”

“Great control of time and speed! i really enjoy you speak. I think you can be even greater if you don’t use notes”

“Very good speech. I love the humor at the end of your conclusion. Very timely as well.”

“Great topic. The bad weather in winter season makes many people feel worse. it is good to avoid this feeling by talk[ing] with others.

“Garth> Fantastic. I actually have seasonal depression & working out and being with others, I have found, is key to ridding negative thoughts & gaining a clear head. You spoke very well & had great energy which made it a pleasure to listen to you.”

“Feels comfortable in front of an audience. I thought the topic was important to the audience. I liked the way you ended with the statistic you mentioned at the beginning”

Thank you to the audience members who read this for their feedback. I greatly appreciate all feedback: The glamored, the guts and the grime. Now it’s time for public speaking tips.

Lessons On Speech Prep and Present

Originally my speech was not 5 minutes and 33 seconds. After I wrote it out and timed it, it was 11 minutes and 49 seconds.

Lesson 1: Time your speech at different intervals as you write it. It will prevent you from writing too much and pressure you to amp up the content and let the fluff fly away.

While I was writing essays growing up, my mom would always tell me to always write extra because it is a lot easier to take out then to put in. While this may be true for essays, it is not for speeches under 7 minutes.

Lesson 2: If you end up with a 4 page speech when it should be no more than 1 1/2 pages, scrap it. Pull your main points out and use them for an outline and reference your 4 page speech when you get stuck. It is best to use it only when you get stuck because when you try to use a lot of your longer prepared speech, you will feel like the points wont be as powerful without all the fluff around them. Trust me. I used 2 days trying to take pieces out of my speech to shorten it when I should have started over after I found out it was nearly 12 minutes long.

Once my speech was set and in between the 5-7 minute restriction I thought I would try a new memorization strategy. I recorded myself giving the speech on my computer and uploaded the file to my iPod. I will tell you now, it is very uncomfortable when you listen to yourself give your speech for the first few times. But then I learned two lessons from it.

Lesson 3: Once you get over laughing at yourself as you listen to yourself giving the speech, you begin to notice the details. You notice when you take a breath, you notice the points of poor vocal variety, you notice the areas in which you really seem passionate and the areas in which you sound boring. By becoming an attuned audience member, you can become the tuned in speaker everyone wants to hear.

While originally this was not my point for recording my speech, this strategy greatly increased my presentation abilities. I won more than half of my audience’s appeal to having listened so intensely to myself speak over and over and over. But the real reason I recorded myself was that I wanted to memorize.

Lesson 4: Increase your memorization speed by listening to yourself give your speech. You will begin to mouth out the words as if it were a song.

Unfortunately, this technique did not work as well as I expected it to for me. However, I would still suggest it because the extra bit of memorization could be vital to your actual presentation. If you have or end up trying this strategy, please share your results! I would love to know if there is a particular way you memorize your speech.

…and then it was speech time.

Lesson 5: Next time you give a speech, ask a few audience members (or if you are in Toastmasters, ask the club members) if they will observe how you handle your struggles. When speakers fail to know every single idea, thought, feeling and movement of their speech they tend to, like me, find a way to push their ideas out or find a way to strive to reach an idea.

During my speech I struggled to remember and connect a few ideas and I used too many hand movements. I felt that if I made the movements as if I were getting an idea across, the idea would follow but it wound up backfiring. Do you know how you handle your struggles?

Lesson 6: Do not focus only on hand and facial gestures.

Audience members respond to whole body movement as well, as you read in my club’s feedback, my legs remained static during this speech. Just a reminder.

The Short Version

As you know, my original speech was almost 12 minutes long. I know that work did not go to waste because I truly enjoyed researching for it, writing it and learning from it. For now, enjoy the speech version rather than the “essay version”.

S.A.D. Your Darkest Cloud

There’s something I hate. Really do hate, and as you know I’m a very optimistic person, so it’s a huge deal that I’m starting with the fact I hate something. Now what I hate is a mood disorder and almost everyone gets it, whether it’s barely noticeable or you end up taking a trip to the doctor. Even with my positive attitude, I get it. I get SAD. Seasonal affective disorder, better known as winter depression or winter blues.

The symptoms can be so disastrous that all the positive energy and self improvement you created and invested in yourself throughout the last year could flash away in less than a week.

You find yourself unhappy with all of your achievements, in fact, you don’t even call them achievements, achievement is a sign you’re going somewhere. But you’re not; at least this is what the emotional disorder will tell you.

Now, can you believe 6.1% of the population suffers from seasonal affective disorder at a degree that they should ask for help? It’s such a small percentage but 6.1% of the US population is nearly 19million people.

All of this research began from the fact that every year, I’m in this 6.1% when the season starts to change to winter. After more than 9 years of trial and error I came up with 3 ways to, not only tackle seasonal depression, but these 3 ways can be used to leverage yourself in your success journey. The three topics I am going to talk about are exercise, the personal link, and the passion experiment.

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Now, do you have a coworker or friend that works out every day? I am going to bet that they are the ones with the most energy in the office, the ones that get things done and always have a smile on their face while doing so. I am finding it incredible the correlation that exercise has on our feelings and emotions throughout the day.

Let me share a study with you, researchers compared the effects of 30 minutes of walking on a treadmill with 30 minutes of quiet rest in 40 adults recently diagnosed with depression. None of the participants were taking antidepressants or exercising regularly.

The results showed that both groups reported reductions in feelings like tension, anger, depression, and fatigue. But only the exercise group reported feeling good, as measured by improved scores on “vigor” and “well-being” indicators.

And that is what we really want isn’t it? We don’t want to not feel bad, we want to feel goooood.

Even more so, I found another article where scientists have experimented with rodents and know that running induces the production of new neurons in rodent brains, BUT Elizabeth Gould and colleagues at Princeton University report that this benefit is wiped out when animals are housed individually, a situation she likens to “solitary confinement” for humans.

Which brings me to my next factor of fighting back depression, human connections.

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I can go on about the negative consequences to social isolation, but that is not going to motivate you to make personal connections when you are feeling down. What will, is talking about an out of the box benefit. While most read that social connections promote outcomes of better health, longevity, and greater quality of life — I have concluded an even better benefit. Social interaction can spring you forward to your life’s goals.

When talking to others, you have to form all your ideas into sentences to form a complete idea. Why do you think were told to practice our speeches out loud? By talking to people you have to put it in words and simplify it to where it’s understandable and the result is achievable. When you talk with people, every word is a brick to the path of the ideas manifestation.

Furthermore, with this social interaction, you will simply forget about depressive thoughts.

Can you recall the last time you were so focused on something that time just flew by? Maybe you were on a phone with a friend and didn’t realize it had even started to rain outside or a personal example, I was talking to a friend on the bus about my eBook and we both forgot to pull the cord and missed our bus stop. We get involved with talking to others about life, and goals, and achievements that we forget the negativity, the downs, the SAD emotions.

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Now the state of connecting with people leads me to my next point, life is like a giant game of connect the dots. You know people; those people know other people or have information that can help you get what you want and live your passion.

And acting on your passion is my last point because the action of going after what you want can decrease your depression symptoms. Why? Because you have a focus. It’s similar to what I mentioned with personal connections, you get so caught acting on your passion that all the emotions and negative circumstances in your life disappear.

To be honest, seasonal depression helped me figure out what I was absolutely most passion about, and just as I have over 250 life goals written down, I have the same number of passions, but having the depression helped me figure out the top thing. Writing. When I sit down and write I forget everything, I forget to eat, I forget to sleep, I have once gone over 6 hours writing without getting up to go to the bathroom. But most importantly, I forgot it was winter, I forgot I was sad, I forgot all the negative situations in my life… they vanished. I want the same for you.

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By exercising each day to release the gitty-up chemicals in your brain, by making social interaction a priority, and by making your passion an adventure by exploring and sharing your findings,  you can decrease the force of depression, eliminate it permanently, or completely prevent it in the first place.

Before I end this speech, do any of you remember approximately how many people suffer from seasonal affective disorder in the US? (nearly 19mil) Even though this is such a small number compared to the actual number of  people in the US, if these people started to exercise, started to seek out connections, and do what they love can you visualize how HUGE of an impact that would make on the world as a whole?

That is almost 19 million people achieving their goals, feeling motivated, having energy, being happy, inspiring others, connecting with each other, exchanging positive attitudes, spreading love. They say a simple smile is contagious, well you mix all the emotions and actions of the above and you have yourself a freaking epidemic!

BUT, the winter season is filled with dark clouds, both literally and mentally speaking with seasonal affective disorder being the darkest cloud. We know that it’s the time that everyone is at the highest risk of depression, so remember when you lift weights, lift ideas with people and lift your passion, you are also lifting your darkest cloud.

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Stay Positive and Lifting

Garth E. Beyer

Kids Kill the Successful Spirits of Their Parents

Garth Beyer

I was thinking the other day at work how I have slowly quit telling my dad about my goals and interests in life. It’s a bit depressing when you have to stop sharing stories about your life with your parents because they have become negative and “worried” about you. Do your parents express the following qualities?

  • Apprehensive and hesitant about every choice you are going to make.
  • Constantly suggests that you get a full time job and focus at one thing at a time.
  • Go to school, stay in school. Do whatever it takes to be in school.
  • Refuses to support you in what you are interested in. They will only support you in what they think is right.
  • Similar to the above, but their way is the right way.
  • Always take the safe route, in a job, activity, etc.
  • If you are not in school, they don’t support you financially.
  • They don’t care about your passions.
  • The opposite of your 3rd grade homework, they no longer care as passionately about your personal creations.

Now I may have been a bit critical, but I wanted to express a point that there are parents of all degrees of negativity. I have tried talking to my dad and telling him what he needs to do – support me, be interested, keep the cynicism to himself (If you don’t have anything positive to say, don’t say it). After his half-hearted attempt at acting like he supported me, I decided I needed to find out what went wrong. He was once the opposite of all the bullet points I listed above. So what happened?

Parenting is a career that any parent can quit

To put it simply. I grew up and he forgot how to stay young. Do you remember how ecstatic your parents would be when you would bring them a B paper, or a picture you drew of an ancient Victorian castle that actually looked like a gross crustacean vomited on the paper and your parents still loved it and put it on the fridge? (maybe behind something, but at least it was still on the fridge) Your parents would encourage you to be creative as hell! I remember listening to Brian Tracy and he mentioned a fourth grade teacher that asked her student what he was drawing. He replied “God”. She said “Oh honey, you can’t do that. No one knows what God looks like”. I admire the student for how he responded, “Yea, that’s because I havent finished drawing him yet”. All parents begin by having that attitude that you can draw God, that you can create, be, do absolutely anything you want in life. They are completely patient with you and love your experiments no matter how much time, money, or resources it takes from them.

Why does this parenting attitude end? Because parents are quitters.

It’s not the kids fault afterall

I really did laugh out loud when I finally came to the conclusion that parents quit practicing the lessons they taught their kids. Think about that for a moment, every parent is about creating the best kids, so they teach them the greatest lessons. Of course they are aware that you are going to mimic them, so they have to live up to their advice and preaching. But something flips the switch in their minds when you reach a certain age. They resort back to the lifestyle they lived before they brought you into the world. They become cynical, apprehensive, full of anxiety and all they ever focus on is the “reality” of life. (Reality being interchangeable with The Negative)

They also forget that they raised you to be creative and to go after big goals. But once that switch flips, all the sudden none of it matters. -Worst case of undiagnosed Alzheimer’s in the world-

“The greatest gift a parent can give a child is the ability to become independently happy. And the greatest gift a child can give a parent is exercising that ability”

A word to the parents

Don’t grow up. I am speaking for the billions of kids in the world when I say that we would rather you treat us like babies our entire life and keep a positive attitude, than let the switch be flipped.

A word to the kids

Don’t grow up. I am speaking for the billions of kids in the world when I say that we would rather you keep the heart and mind of a 4th grader than live the cycle of your parents and let your switch flip off.

Stay Positive and Youth-Spirited

Garth E. Beyer

“The greatest gift a parent can give a child is the ability to become independently happy. And the greatest gift a child can give a parent is exercising that ability”

How To Become 3+ Billion Times More Connected, Successful, and Happy

Garth Beyer

If I asked you who taught you to speak English, you would say your parents.

If I asked you who taught you how to think, you would say your parents.

Am I wrong when I say that people who teach you language, teach you how to think?

 

I doubt the educational system realizes the greatness they are producing by requiring the youth to take language classes. I even more so doubt that YOU realize the greatness.

  • Learning a different language than your native tongue opens your mind to the possibilities of exploring the world.
  • Hearing a language makes you feel connected with the world even in your home town.
  • I love Improv, so knowing another language allows me to really work new personalities and different cultures into an Improv show. I can imitate Hitler in a humorous way, I can reenact the German language parts of movies, I can create any type of German person I want, all because I learned another language.
  • With another language, you rarely learn negative vocabulary, so you do not know how to produce negative feelings – Stay Positive
  • As a more fun reason to learn another language, you get to become someone else. You have just opened another path that you can walk while you walk your current path. A double life of excellence. You can make up a common German or Italian name (Mine is Gregor, in German).

While language gives you a new way of thinking by having you analyze, articulate, write, and explore a certain language, it does something far greater for you.

On the base level, you open your mind to growth, the more you understand about language, the more you can comprehend about life. Yet there is something even greater… not only does it expand your mind for greater understanding, but it expands it to “Not understand” — Not understand why so many people limit themselves in their learning. It compels you to “not understand” why people can think they can be one of the most successful people on the planet without being able to talk and understand the lifestyles of people on the other side of the planet. The reason I am writing this post is because I do not understand why anyone is content with knowing one language. Language allows you to connect.

If you talk to a woman in a language she understands, that goes to her head.
If you talk to her in her language, that goes to her heart.

Which person do you think learns more and is more successful? The person who only knows english and can only connect with less than 3 billion people? Or the person who knows two, three, four, five languages that can connect with 6+ billion people. Twice as many as the single language speaker. The ability to speak and connect with 1 billion more people than you can now, would dramatically improve your life. Traveling would not be a dream, it would become a reality. Job opportunities would open across the globe. You would be exposed to millions of more women and men to find your true love. (Maybe you wont find someone in a foreign territory, but when you find one near your home place, you can serenade her with the language you now know!)

A Manual Aptitude For An Einstein

With language, you are not only open to connecting with billions of people, but also billions of books and information. With a better understanding of the world and the endless amount of knowledge it provides, you can become a genius.

Language is the archives of history. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the world of learning a language and how to think, it does not matter what “success” is to you. The fact is, that no matter what success means to you, learning another language will get you there 3+ billion times faster with 3+ billion times greater of an experience, a journey.

Learning a language is like being born again. You are now able to make all the decisions you made in your native language. But this time, you can make the right ones.

 

Stay Positive, and 3+ Billion Times More Positive Than Before

Garth  E. Beyer – Like Confucius, “In his speech, he wishes to be sincere”

The First Hand Fails: This Is How The Second Hand Succeeds In Sales

Garth Beyer

Do you want first hand experience with the philosophy and tactics of selling?

I do!     Err, I did.

Somewhere between not wanting to pay $250 dollars for a Seminar on selling and getting restless when I would read 200 pages of business/selling advice every day, I found World Financial Group. Better yet, they found me.

Side Note: Did you know that almost as many people who secondhand smoke end up with as many health problems and issues as someone who does the smoking? You can even agree that those who second-hand smoke, typically end up smoking. I never thought I could take such a terrible relationship and create an analogy out of it, but I am going to give it a puff, so read on.

The “I’m Gonna Make 500k a Year” Adrenaline Rush

It’s time to kick the adrenaline and excitement of selling out of your system. You can go to school, seminars and read as many books as you want on selling, but you still won’t be the best salesman. All that the knowledge will create is an adrenaline to sell, and when you go out to make your first few sales, you will most likely be unsuccessful>feel beat>not want to put the tad of extra effort to succeed>give up>go back to trying to be what your parents want you to be>and feel out-of-place the rest of your life. Unless…

You soak up the concept that I am going to share with you.

1. For the beginners in sales or those who simply want to learn the strategies of a salesman, this concept is perfect for you.

2. For those who are on the unsuccessful sales track that I presented above, this concept is the tad of extra effort you need to succeed in all your future sales.

3. For those who consider themselves experts in selling, congratulations on failing enough to turn your experience into something remarkable. This concept I am about to share is very much like your process — but in this concept, you don’t fail.

The concept: Become the second-hand smoker of sales.

I mentioned World Financial Group (WFG) and this will be the basis of explaining the concept you need to follow to skip failure in sales. If you have not heard of WFG they are a national seller of insurance, investments and financial advice.

I received a phone call from them about two weeks ago. The sales-field adviser in IL wanted to ask me a few questions related to my direction in life and thoughts about assisting families by providing financial advise. He told me one of my good friends recommended me for the position and he would like me to come to the office in IL for a presentation. (Remember, I live in WI now)

I thought to myself, “All the greatest leaders in history were at once involved with sales.” On top of that, if you can’t tell by the majority of the information on my website, I want to be a broker and financial advisor to families and individuals so this opportunity seemed like I could combine the two.

I went to the presentation in IL and really enjoyed the message and point of the company to help families with all financial variables, not just selling insurance. After the presentation I had a private meeting with the Field Advisor. During the meeting he began to talk more about the company and how it seemed that I would fit in and then he started asking questions about me. (Quick tip about me, when you meet me, you know immediately how much I love to talk) I began getting more excited, telling him about all my qualities that would be perfect for the company. I then started sending a torrent of questions about the company at him. I am not easily persuaded, I think things all the way through and I allow time between information intake and decision making when possible. He did not know this though…

75% of my excitement and energy came from the great position that I could place myself in, it’s a little bit of everything I want to be: My own business, financial advising, life improving, etc. The other 25% of excitement and energy came from acting like every other person that has walked through the door. (It is said WFG calls around 10,000 ‘friends of friends’ to come in and check a presentation out every month)

To shorten the rest of the story, I did not apply to become a WFG associate (yet). Instead, I wanted to check out the WI branch and see what they have to offer. To reiterate, I am going to check out the WI branch primarily because It seems like something I really want to do (75% of excitement and energy). It’s also another opportunity to learn selling techniques (25% of acting).

I Hope The Smoke Is Starting To Clear

You have just been given a very short summary of my experience. If I told you to go back and read it and tell me the selling techniques that were used on me, you could find at least 7. Don’t think so? Then let me pull them up for you.

1.  He networked. He used my friend whom I trust to gain my trust in him.

2. My friend and him had talked so he knew that I was ambitious and I made it clear when I answered his questions that I enjoyed talking about myself and my goal sand accomplishments. Quick personality background check.

3. I was recommended. Who doesn’t like knowing that they got recommended for something?

4. Presented the best qualities and mission of the company through a simple Powerpoint presentation. Exploiting the best parts of the job and not mentioning the money making aspect of it.

5. Square peg into square hole. How I fit perfectly into the picture.

6. Brought up questions the right questions. About me.

7. Answered as many questions as I threw at him (Trust me, I asked A LOT).

Multiply 7 by 3 and the Smoke Better Be Gone

7 x 3 = How many sales techniques were used in total on me. The reason I mentioned the 7 above is because that is all it took to get me in, I really wanted to become an associate (I still may). Once it was unveiled to me that the Field Advisor was selling me the position and that I was the prospect, I began playing my part even more. (25% acting). Later that evening, once my excitement began decreasing, I was able to note all that I learned from the endeavor. Once the 75% energy and interest began to dwindle, the 25% of acting started to provide me results and I discovered the other 14 selling techniques that were used on me.

Look at it like this: The field advisor is the smoker and I just got done second-hand smoking.

I knowingly and excitedly became the second-hand smoker of sales. I just learned 21 techniques of selling in one session by becoming the prospect.

Why Learn From Your Failures When You Can Be The Failure Of Others

I do not at all support the fact of purposefully creating failure for other people. I do however promote experiences that teach both parties lessons that will improve each parties talents. In this case, I provided more selling experience to the WFG Field Advisor along with clearly showing what techniques worked best. (They really did work. As I said, only 25% was acted. He was the one who inspired and excited the other 75%) As my reward for my contribution to his increase in talent and experience, I got to second-hand smoke his sales techniques.

Every mentor in “Sales” will tell you to listen to listen to CD’s on reading and understanding people, read books on connecting with people, and browse examples of successful sales. All of this is what you should already be doing, but no mentor is going to tell you to go out and become a prospect.

I am telling you otherwise.

To only study the philosophy of selling is not enough, you have to become part of the philosophy. The best way is not to go out and sell — this will lead you to learn from YOUR failures. The best way is to go out and be the one who is sold to!

You do not need to be the primary smoker… I mean seller.

Stay Positive and Inhale The Benefits of Second Hand Selling

Garth E. Beyer

Interested in the 14 other sales techniques that were used? Email me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com with the subject line Sales Techniques

Business Networking

Garth Beyer

If you are into business or simply wanting to make connections with people who have similar interests as you, then you are out and about attending seminars, meetings, webinars, business brunches, team meetings and everything of the sort.

Now really, are you attending them? Or leading them?

In networking, you’re only as good as what you give away. – Mackay Maxim

When you go to a business gathering to network, you want to be on everyone’s mind. The easiest way to do that?

1 Give the best pitch

2 Promote the best product

3 Be the most energetic and outgoing

3.5 Act as if you are already a millionaire (And you will be…After you ignore these steps and pay attention to what you are going to read next)

The days of “Who’s Best” are long over. Sure I will take a glance over at the guy wearing the 500k ring, Rolex watch, and who owns the largest company, but that is not where my attention is. Nor is it anyone’s who is going to be successful at life — not just business. Because I saw a 500k ring, but not a wedding ring. I saw a Rolex watch, but I never noticed him look at the time, no doubt because he hasn’t any family he needs to get back home to or close friends to meet up with. Few men and women ended up owning the largest company and having everything else money couldn’t buy them (Faith, Friends, Family).

Until now… because they no longer follow the steps mentioned above.

And here we are.

“We were young, but we had good advice and good ideas and lots of enthusiasm.”
– Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation

The days of becoming financially successful AND winning at all areas of life are here. The greatest companies, people, organizations you read and hear about now, are not only making the most money — but they are continuously leaving the largest POSITIVE impact on all of their buyers, friends, competitors, family, associates and most importantly, You. Simply by giving.

So how does any of this have to do with the time you are investing in business networking?

The question now asked when going to a business gathering to network is “what is the BEST (not easiest) way to be on everyone’s mind?”

1 Present the best ideas

2 Promote all of the products

3 Be the most passionate and influential

3.5 Act as if you can make everyone a millionaire (If you can’t do that, at least make them FEEL like a millionaire)

It seems to me that giving is the prime factor in all of the tactics. You are not only giving all of your mind, but also all of your heart to the wide variety of products. You are not remaining selfish but helpful by promoting products that you did not create. You are portraying and setting an example of the two biggest qualities of a leader rather than someone who just made a 30,000 dollar close. -And yes, if it were up to me. I would take being a leader to the 20 companies that I am networking with over making a 30,000 dollar sale- Lastly, you are networking to create success in others instead of yourself. Because “you can have everything you want in life, if you simply help enough other people get what they want in life” – Zig Zigler

Stay Positive and These Concepts Have Been Held True Since 1992

Garth E. Beyer

Business Bonus:To make the most of business networking when different companies come together to socialize and create a think tank, have a business card box upon entry. Everyone that attends will deposit their business card into the box. When the meeting is over, everyone will take a business card from the box (not their own) and will do business with the company on the card. Whether they call them to get a quote, refer a friend to their company, or use the company themselves, as long as it gives the other business person experience and an opportunity to prosper. It’s all about making connections and both benefiting from it.