7 Minutes to Better Selling Podcast - S2 - Ep. 6

Thank you

Hey, welcome everybody to the 7 Minutes of Better Selling podcast

I don't know if you ever listened to music beforehand, but it's kind of fun to rock out to that music

I don't know if you ever do like I do. But anyway, so I'm your host, Colin Lake

I'm also the president and founder of Develop the Next Leaders. As many of the listeners know, we are a firm that's on this mission to enhance the lives of executives in the sales world, sales teams and sales organizations

So how we do that is through coaching, training and learning development programs, helping them truly love what they do by improving their skill sets throughout the entire sales process

I've often said it's really hard to love something when you don't do it well

And so our goal was to help them do it better, help them communicate better with their clients, and help them fully build relationships with their clients

Because the expression is, you can fire a salesperson, but you rarely fire a friend

So although our name is 7 Minutes at Better Selling, our live podcast or live broadcast typically goes somewhere between 10 and 12 minutes

Today's will probably be right around that time frame, so I'm excited about that. We then take it to the editing floor. We distill the highlights and the pearls of wisdom down to seven minutes, and then we push that out to the world for all to enjoy

So today we have a really special guest in that he is the first host of another show that we've had on our show

So Jeff Thomas is the host of Investor Mastermind, which is a very interesting show

If you're not watching, I strongly recommend you get connected to it

Jeff also has this social media, I'll call it an empire. He might give a smile at that one, but he's done a really nice job at putting out his thought leadership out social media in a way that's real palatable, easy to understand and usable out in your own world

Jeff, amongst those two domains, also is the regional director at Swine Global

So an awfully busy guy. So, Jeff, thanks so much for joining us. We're real excited to have you on the show and lead off a great discussion on better selling

Hey, thanks, Colin, so much. I'm a big fan of the 7 Minutes of Better Selling podcast

So really, it's an honor to be on here today. It's nice to be on the other side of the equation

Usually I'm sitting where you are, so it's nice to be on the other side of that. Yeah, right, right, right. I agree with you on that sentiment completely

So I'm real interested in this question. So I ask a lot, like tell the listeners about you

So I ask that, but my question is maybe a little bit more pointed. How do you get from doing what you were doing, just like a salesperson, to creating this platform and doing all the wonderful things you've been doing in the financial services industry today

Yeah, I mean, my journey has been a long one. I mean, I've been in the business for over 22 years now

I started in 1999 as a financial advisor. But, you know, I always kind of struggle with that question of what makes me different

And I think it goes back to the American story that we all have, which is, you know, at least on my side

And I wasn't in financial service. My family wasn in financial services My dad a third generation lobster fisherman out of the South Shore Massachusetts My brothers are fourth generation I like a black sheep with a white collar So you know

I learned the value of hard work. And my father at 16 years old, he lost his father at sea

which is, you know, he was left, you know, kind of holding the bag. So he had to quit high school

and work the boats to try to make a living for his family. And I saw that, you know

I saw every day him working all night. He would go off to the fire department where he had his second job

work a 12-hour shift and trade in his firefighter boots for fishing boots

And we'd bring the boat in to pick him up in the morning. And it would be repeat every single day

And so he really wanted us to get an education and really expand and try to at least have the opportunity to do something different

Now, my brother's still working in the fishing industry. I decided to go a different route

And it actually started with a conversation I had with a friend of mine who she was working at Fidelity

This is back in 1999. She was entry level. She didn't have a college degree

I was lucky enough to have a college degree, not because I was smart or did anything different, but I played hockey

I was pretty good at it. So I got an academic scholarship at Nichols College

And the coach brought me along. And that scholarship allowed me the opportunity to really keep my grades up

Because if I didn't, if I didn't keep that 3.0, I knew I was going to be back in the boat in the middle of the wintertime

Right. So I think about these things every day when I wake up, you know, where would I be today if I didn't have this conversation with this person who was struggling to pay the bills, get her education

And on my side, I had this degree and I said I have to use it. So 1999, right, Colin? Monster.com

I put my resume out there. I got 20 interviews. I was like, who would want to hire me? I have no idea what I'm doing

And, you know, because I had the hockey thing and I was one of the captains of the hockey team, you know, that kind of goes with sales

So I didn't realize that. But everybody likes the idea of an athlete and using the sales profession

So, you know, 2000s were kind of a rough ride in this industry

But I kept on working my way up and kind of being a phoenix rising from the ashes every time we'd have another layoff at companies and everything else

I kept on rising to the top. And I kept on thinking about that as I went through my career of how easy it is to take such a great career like this

And I've seen some great wholesalers, great people in this industry get left at the wait side

So I make sure that every day I'm very grateful and thankful to be in this industry in general

And listening to these podcasts with you, you have great guests and they talk about this idea of what makes them unique, what makes them different

And I always think about how can I do something different than every other advisor, every other wholesaler, every other sales director that comes in front of an office

What am I doing differently? And that was really the genesis of the Investment Masterminds program

Boy, that's awesome. Great description. So I have to ask you a question about your dad. That's amazing

Did he do that five days a week, six days a week? So was he working like 20 hours a day, 18 hours a day

What type of? Yeah, I try to take Sundays off to watch the Patriots

You know, that would be one thing that you try to take off. But six days a week, really from April through like September, October

November, you know, it gets a little colder. In the wintertime, you know, it depends on the winter

You know, the price of lobster has to be right because it's not worth risking your life in the middle of winter

if the price of lobster is not there. But, yeah, he's 80 years old

He still does it. It's great. Man, oh, man. Oh, it's so impressive

And so it's a great transition point to the second question I want to ask you

Like he has this internal why He able to wake himself up every day and say this is what I should be doing and I should be doing it to the best of my ability He has that why So my question to you is

what drives you? Like what makes you really successful at selling yourself to perform at

your highest level every day? And by the way, your highest level is one that you have to hold

yourself intact or in check with. Like if I'm capable of performing here, I can't allow myself

to perform here and call it that. So how do you do that, Jeff? Yeah, it's a good question. I

recently listened to season two, episode four of your Better Selling podcast with Bobby Harrington

and he kind of nailed it right on the head. And really, it's about believing in yourself first

That is the toughest thing for me. At every level in my career, up until about five years ago

six years ago, every level in my career, even as much as I got advanced, as much as I became number

one or two in sales year after year after year. I never really believed it to be true. And I read

actually a book on the TED Talks that talks about make it until you become it. It's not make it or

fake it until you make it. Yeah, don't. It's not fake it until you make it because you really want

to become that person over time. Right. So if you have the goal in mind and you know where you want

to be, you're in the right spot. Right. So every day when I get up, I think, what can I do to be

better at collaborating and making sure that I'm bringing value because that is how advisors now

want to digest content. The old system was, you know, I grew up watching Wall Street, Tin Men

Glen Gary, Glen Ross, these great movies. And then later on, you had Boiler Room and The Wolf

of Wall Street. And what does it show you? It shows you all these terrible behaviors. And what

do salespeople do? They idolize it, right? And you see the end, at the end, terrible things happen

because they're not looking at the integrity of the sales process. So not only is it about believing in yourself, and I mean, you have to do it

You have to look in the mirror and say, I can do this. And honestly, you can

It doesn't matter who the competition is. It doesn't matter who the other wholesaler is or who the other sales professional is

You are just as good as anybody else. And if you're listening to this podcast, that tells me right off the bat

that you want to become better at what you do. And that's what I continue to tell myself every day is to continue to be better

So it's not only about believing in yourself and helping to connect other people together

I'm all about collaboration. That's why we're having this conversation, Colin. You and I like to collaborate and bring people together

And when you think about whoever your end user is, whatever the product is, if you can bring specialists and you're now the quarterback and you're bringing in these different players that are specialists

specialist in that relationship, you now are the point of reference. We haven't even talked about

product or solutions, right? So making sure that you're collaborating, bringing different views

together to find the best of breed for your end user, your client. The end client for me is

financial advisors. And you need to truly believe not only in yourself, but what your solution is

right that is so yeah i want to offer a thought here so i want you to um expound on it please

or elaborate a bit on it um there's an expression that says in the blind in the blind man's world

the one-eyed man is king um and so is this how what i just heard you say what like how this hit

me is you don't have to be like the absolute best at everything you just have to be better than

the next person like you keep saying what what is the differentiator if everyone's performing

it here and I perform it h to be seen as the best what I heard which I think So tell nice point So tell me more about that How do you gauge what is different Different just to be different is not better

Different and better is, in fact, way better. Yeah, great question. So it's about meeting

your end user, your client, where they're at. And that's the problem. There's no secret sauce

to sales. And that's what I've learned over time. There's no secret sauce. You have to look where

your client is going. And think about today. Today, how do we absorb information? We used to watch TV

right? It was great. And we'd watch commercials. And that's how we would learn about products and

services and solutions. Do we watch commercials anymore? Not really. I mean, exceptional Super

Bowl, right? How do people get content? They're getting it through the Netflix. They're getting

it through Amazon Prime and those types of things, right? So how do they monetize that? Well, they

they charge a fee for it, but now there's other competitors that also charge a fee

So how can they give it for free? Well, they might do one micro commercial that is more geared to a

specific audience. And they also have microcosms of that where, you know, you know, on the Amazon

all the time when you talk to, you know, like if you have Amazon Alexa or Siri and you say something

suddenly it's right in front of your phone. They're meeting you, the end user, where you are at

They are bringing you content that they already know that you need

So if you see someone on social media, right, and you're seeing that they're using it and that's your end user, you know you can meet them there

If you go to a LinkedIn page and they don't have a picture in their profile, they're not going to be listening to this podcast today, right

So you're going to have to call them. You're going to have to knock on the door. You might have to do more of an old school approach with that

So it's all about meeting the end user where they're at in that conversation

Boy, great answer. Really a great answer. Jeff, I'm going to give you the last word here

And also Simon will bring up how to get in touch with you. But how best to get people connected with the Investor Mastermind podcast

get them connected with your social media so they can hear all of the wisdoms that you pour out every week

Hey, I really appreciate that. So Investment Masterminds is very easy. if you just type in investment masterminds into google it comes up as number two or three if you

if you tag on swan on that it will come up as a first choice automatically so after the ads

when i put in investment masterminds it pops up pretty quickly uh that's an easy way uh you know

my name is jeff thomas so if you put jeff thomas in there and investment masterminds it's gonna

pop right up and linked in for you oh thanks there's our website for swan global investments

as well. Yeah, so that's good. And then this will be the parting thought for all. Give us maybe a

30 second or on, if you're going to be great on any social media platform, if you're trying to

promote yourself as a salesperson, what's one, like I said, 10, 20, 30 second little hint you

give to people? Yeah, I would say that when I do a profile on someone that I'm looking for something

on their website or social media or from their assistant that they are passionate about

If you can match their passion, then you will have them not from a sales perspective

but from a relations perspective. So again, meet them where they're at and use the tools

that you have to find what they're passionate about and match that passion

Great. Wonderful answer. I really loved it. I'm so happy to have you. So happy to spend time with

I'm sure all the listeners are as well, and we're all better for it. So thanks, Jeff, for being a guest and good selling, everyone

Thanks