Hello, everybody, Macy McNeely. Here, Hey, I’ve gotten a couple of just messages from you on the guide culture Instagram saying, Hey, you listen to this specific podcast or this episode was really helpful for you. And I just really appreciate that it is so helpful to record a podcast, knowing who is on the other side of it. I know I’m really used to talking on stories and getting immediate response from the stories or, you know, training on Zoom or training on our academy calls. And it’s just so nice to have the response and the energy coming back to know that you’re helping people and that you’re in the right direction. And I feel like I’ve gotten quite a bit of that lately, and I just really appreciate it. So please feel free to message me on Instagram at the guide culture. And tell me what episode what part of what episode helped you and I just would love that love to hear from you.

Okay, we are going to talk about a just aha moment that I’ve had, I’ve had a few aha moments, I’m gonna be honest. First of all, I just started my life coach certification process. I got or I’m getting certified from The Life Coach School, I went to Austin, Texas for four days for the in person version. And then it continues quite a while there’s quite a few requirements in order to officially get certified. I’ve been reading all my material, and practicing and studying and I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned so much. Oh, it’s it’s much more complex than I thought that it was as someone who’s been in like the people business and like, Oh, we’re coaching people, like I understand people. Coaching is so much different than sales, I can’t even tell you how different it is. So I’ve just been stretched in all the right ways. In seeing things so differently. Not so differently, but just maybe more enhanced or with more. With just more like lenses in my glasses, you know what I mean? It’s just more and more clear. And it’s been fun to kind of go through life and go through this process learning and growing.

I’ve also been watching a ton of Shark Tank. I’m not one to really watch a ton of TV. But I just you know one time, one day I was on Hulu, and I was just scrolling and you know the Kardashians popped up and I’m just like, I like don’t want to fill my brain with that. But I needed to numb my brain just a little bit, you know, winding down for the night in Shark Tank was right beside it. And I was like you know what, let me watch a shark tank episode. Well, two months later, I’ve been watching it every single night before I go to bed and I can’t get enough of it. I am fascinated by the pitches. I’m fascinated by the businesses by the entrepreneur. I’m fascinated by their journey. I’m fascinated by the sharks, the by the questions that they ask, what makes them make a decision, the responses of the entrepreneurs, I am fascinated, you would think it would get old like it’s the same show in the same thing over and over and over. But it does not get old. And so I’ve had a lot of revelations watching Shark Tank. And I just really want to share one with you today. I actually just shared this on Instagram stories. And I’ve gotten a few messages of saying hey, you should say this as a highlight, which typically means for me, this needs to be a podcast that can be easily shared. So we’re going to talk about it.

I was watching this one girl. This one woman entrepreneur on Shark Tank. And she had a really incredible product. She had worked on this product for a very long time. It was a beverage for kids, and the beverage was no sugar and had all these vitamins in it. And she had a beautiful demonstration in her pitch. She was very well spoken she was polished she stood confidently and you know she was very well liked. Towards the beginning of her pitch. The sharks tasted her drinks. She had all these flavors. The branding was beautiful. And they loved the drinks. They’re like oh my gosh, this is so good. I love that has no sugar. They were looking at the nutrition label and they’re like, Oh, the ingredients look great. They were just going on and on about the product and then they start asking questions about the business. One of the questions they Ask typically is, you know, do you have any debt? Have you raised any other money? How much money have you put in? And they specifically asked her, have you raised any money? And she said yes. From other investors, which I think is a good sign for sharks because they’re like, Okay, it’s either good or not. So they either see, oh, other people see the value, or I’ve heard them say, oh, will, you know, other investors don’t love it when a shark comes in? You know, it just depends on the situation. But they seem to be very impressed with her answer, that she raised a million dollars of other people’s money.

Other investors that saw her as valuable, that saw her as worth investing in. And they couldn’t believe it. They’re like, Wow, that’s amazing. Their next question was, well, what are your sales? And her answer was her lifetime sales were $55,000. Now lifetime, includes, you know, creating the product, formulating the dream, you know, figuring things out, but all that she had sold was $55,000. And they were like jaws on the ground jaw on the floor. They’re like, what, like, how have you only sold $55,000? And then their next question was, oh, you might, maybe you haven’t, you know, spent, like all that money that you’ve raised, how much is left? And she said, $50,000 was left in the bank. And they were just basically on the floor. Like, what?

You know, it was just so so much shock. And usually they’re pretty like steady Eddie, like they’ve seen it all is what it seems like, but they were just so disappointed. And you know, she was confident she stood her ground, and they beat up on her pretty good. They were like, What on earth have you spent $950,000 on. And she basically talked about all the things she’s been doing to get ready to go to market. She’s taking care of legal things, protection for international and national rights, I guess, or usage of her formulation. She said that she’s been marketing, she’s been thinking about systems operations, distribution. She was learning her clients. And basically just like getting things in order. She kept using the words marketing and distribution.

And Mark Cuban, one of the sharks kind of got on there. He’s like, hey, marketing is making someone aware of something he’s like, stop talking about marketing, and stop talking about distribution, stop saying the word distribution, why aren’t you saying the word sales? Like why aren’t you essentially hitting the pavement and selling this product? With everything you have? Like, why are you marketing? Why are you protecting yourself over something that no one even wants to buy? And, of course, you know, she had all her reasons. And they were they were so bothered by it being someone else’s money. And she basically used it for things that were unnecessary. And this song is not a new song that I’ve heard, I talk to people all the time about their businesses.

And while most of us are not borrowing a million dollars of someone else’s money, we are doing very similar things that what she is doing from, from what I hear from people all the time. And that is essentially like, hey, I want to get everything in place. I want all the dust to settle. I want things to feel secure. And sure and unlock before I sell ans that looks like a couple of different things. I hear a lot about systems and processes and operations. That’s the number one thing I hear I gotta get systems in place. I hear a lot about leads. I gotta get some leads before I can sell. I hear about websites. Oh, do I hear about a website photoshoots, branding, the product suite. I hear a lot about product suites. I hear basically everything except for selling. Everything needs to be in place before you can sell. And honestly it makes sense because there’s really no risk in setting things up. Other than your time and not being compensated for your time. You really aren’t risking much of anything.

And it’s very fun to play business. It’s fun to have your asana board or your Click Up. I remember the first time we got an Asana board. And you know, every time you check something off, all the rainbows pop up, and it feels like such, it’s like that instant gratification. It’s fun to have, you know, your Google Docs, like all organized and categorized, it’s fun to play business, I get it, like I really, really do. It also is really harming you. A lot of times people just really want to get clarity on the path before they can move forward. They want to know what’s ahead, before they can make their next step. And I also understand that because we have been totally trained to see specific paths, you go to school, you get your degree, you are, you know, your job is whatever your degree was in, you’re either a nurse, you’re a lawyer, you’re a doctor, you’re a teacher, you work in finance, you know, there’s these specific paths.

And when these paths are so specific and clear, it’s very easy to take the path because the step is next. And so we’re trained to know the next step. One of the most profound lessons, and just revelations that I’ve had, after being in business for five years, is the how tip typically reveals itself in the rearview mirror.The how in terms of the strategy, in terms of the business plan, in terms of the programs, in terms of the platforms in terms of the content, the niche, the ideal client that comes in the rearview mirror? The clarity comes once I’ve already, you know, done it, and then I turn around and I look behind me, and I’m like that makes sense. Okay, yes, now, we can like make adjustments and continue to tweak as we move forward.

Any time I have used someone else’s path, because they have “made the way”. They’re like, Hey, this is what has worked for me, I’ve cleared the path for you just follow like what I do. That has not worked very well for me personally. In fact, that’s what has instigated some of the biggest failures that I’ve ever had. I mean, I’ll just give you a quick example, one time, and this was just naive little maymay. Someone told me to just do this webinar, put it on evergreen, and like the sales will come to the point where I hired someone to help me sell, or close all these leads I was going to have because I believe with all my heart that this was the path that they told me was the answer like that they’ve paved the way for me, and all I had to do was follow the directions. And I think you know where this is going, and that did not happen at all. And it was like the biggest failure of my life like of my business life, honestly. And I am so thankful that all these failures have happened, because failure is the currency to success, I will tell you that. And it has been so helpful just to fail quickly, in early like that, to know that the how really comes in the action.

The clarity comes in the action that you take. And it’s got to be the right kind of action. You know, people they think that the action that they take of their website and their funnel and their branding and their logo, they think that action is what brings clarity. It does not a lot of people think clarity comes from sitting in silence or journaling. And there’s really absolutely a time and a place for that there’s no doubt in my mind. clarity comes from action, the right action. And in my opinion, the only action this is just my opinion, the only action that clarity really comes from is selling. Really making yourself build value. And convince yourself and sell yourself on like why someone needs this product. And then actually working with someone back and forth. You delivering what you have you hearing feedback from them seeing their results or their non results and making adjustments and making new tweaks all along the journey. That’s what brings clarity.

And this happens time and time again where people consider School of Sales. And they wait and wait and wait until things are locked and loaded until they so that they can sell. And then what ends up happening is they come to school of sales. And they realize that their website is not a sales website, it’s just a bunch of information that doesn’t make people want to take action. Their funnel is someone else’s funnel that they’ve just copy and pasted. Essentially, which you know, nothing wrong with that it most people sell their funnel so that you do that exact thing. But what they found is that it’s not like real sales messaging, or their specific sales messaging in the funnel. And so they have to adjust it. They’re, you know, they’re like programs set up, they realize that the program that they have created, it’s just information.

Again, like the website, it’s not helping people want to use the information, there’s a huge difference in reading about riding a bicycle and actually riding the bicycle. And then they learn that, hey, I need to create my program so that people ride the bicycle, not just read about it, which is a sales skill is what it takes. Instead, they have to redo their program where they want to redo their program. And the only reason they’re getting this clarity is because they’re getting sales skills they are selling, they are getting in to conversation with people, and then they’re getting the clarity, and then they have to backtrack, it happens so incredibly often. Now, that’s not necessarily going to be the case of you join school of sales. Like I’ve gotten a lot of clarity from going through this Life Coach School certification. But I definitely do not feel the need to like redo stuff or change the stuff, you know, that we’ve already done. So that’s definitely not always the case at all. But it can be especially if someone has put so much emphasis and hasn’t sold as aggressively as they should, then they find themselves in that that situation, which again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because like I said, failures is the currency to success. And so that would be, you know, a little payment payment due to your success.

I want to give you a quick example of just a snapshot of the journey of guide culture, I’m going to give it to you in like 30 seconds, it’s going to be really quick. And I’m going to just mention some things that we really haven’t talked about, because we tried them and they didn’t work. And the only reason we know they didn’t work is because we implemented them with clients with students. Okay. So it all started as Clearly Confident the material was a little bit disorganized. Now when I look back, and when I look back and see the results of students, it was not clicking for them, which means our teaching was off. That’s when we decided to to and we would have only known that if we sold it and delivered it. Since we found that to be the case, we converted it into Guide Culture

Now the reason it got changed to Guide Culture is because we took all that Clearly Confident material and plugged it into a methodology called the guide method. Teaching Guide Culture live probably over 50 times is what gave us so much more clarity on going into School of Sales. Another thing we did, we did pretty consistently was we would teach the material to corporate and found that that wasn’t something that we loved depending on you know, the corporate environment. We liked it, you know, didn’t really loved it found that we could do probably a little bit better with entrepreneurs. And so we kind of backed away from corporate came back to entrepreneurs. At one point, we had something called ambassadors, I thought it was brilliant to have ambassadors it turned out wasn’t helpful at all, but a lot of energy and effort into creating an ambassador program. We eventually had a coach program, which I will say was a hot mess for a very long time. It wasn’t probably until 2021 that it got to be one of the best things that we have is our coach program. But we couldn’t even make it great until it was put into action even if it was messy. We had a needle movers program as most of you know about and that came up randomly and became something completely different for the company than we ever thought it would be which gave us clarity on what needle movers actually needs to be which will be coming in the near future.

And I just I’m saying all of this stuff because I just want you to feel honestly the chaos because it has been chaotic in a lot of ways of all the adjustments, all the refinements all the changes, but the clarity that has come from the chaos is priceless. And the only way the clarity has come from the chaos is because all this material has been sold To people has been delivered to people, all of the sales conversations that has happened in order to get to this point is what has made sales happen. And I just like really want to encourage you to just think about what you are doing in a brick by brick manner. Being in the life coach certification, I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs who had not started their business or were about to start their business. And the way they would talk about it is like, I want to do like group program, I want to do like this big thing.

And listen, I love thinking like that, I think thinking big is one of the most important things you can do. But they are focused on the brick wall, they are focused on the masterpiece of the brick wall. And if they would just focus on laying one brick at a time, that brick wall would be done before they even knew it. And when I say like laying one brick at a time, I’m talking about sale by sale, I you know, they asked me for my advice, what I would have said is Hey, focus on one client this month, obsess over selling to one person, and then the next month, get three. And then the next month do five, and then 10, and then 15. And then 20. And whatever that looks like for you lay the break one by one sale by sale conversation by conversation. And I can hear you potentially on the other side of this episode, saying but may see I don’t want to sell one I want to sell 20 and 30 and 40 and 50. And I hear you I am right there with you in that boat 1,000,000%.

Remember, the brick wall is laid brick by brick, one by one. When you sell to one, that’s when you get clarity. When you had that one sales conversation, and you get that one objection, and you handle it individually, you can come back publicly and handle that exact objection publicly selling to the masses. When you sell that one, the momentum, the excitement, the experience the belief in what you have, it goes up. Like instantly, way more than any website that you have, will give you. And this is why school of sales is so important because it gives you the skill to know exactly how to go get that next person, it gives you the skill to know exactly how to turn your audience into leads. It gives you the skill to take a person walking down the street, you get you know, hypothetically, you get into a casual rapport building conversation, you see that you have something that they need, and you can create the perfect message, a thread that is clear as day for them that what you have is going to help them. You know, just to like put this together, I just want to give you an example we’ve been talking a lot about like local honey.

And I’ve noticed that people think like a local honey, like hypothetically, they if you’re selling that you think oh, it’s only for people who like have oatmeal for breakfast because you put in your oatmeal or it’s like only for people that like drink tea, right? But what about the person who has a podcast and wants their podcasts to have better engagement. Like there’s a thread there of how honey can really soothe your throat, which can help your tone in your podcast, which can increase engagement, which can then increase sales. But someone walking down the street with a podcast, they don’t even know that honey could be the missing piece. And maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but you who sells honey, you believe in your honey and you know, without a shadow of a doubt that this could be the answer for them. And since that is your belief, and you know, this local honey could help them it is your duty and is your obligation to sell it to them and encourage them to give it a shot to see if their tone is better. And their podcast engagement increases. My point here is that people think that not all people but some of you might feel like someone needs to be your ideal client.

You got to figure out your niche, your ideal client and you sell local honey and so your niche is people that drink tea, but what about the person with the podcast who doesn’t drink tea? They actually are an ideal client and it’s your job to help them see that. This is the power of sales skills. This is the power of your ability to communicate so effectively, whether they have a podcast, whether they are going to see their kids, you know baseball game and they have allergies, and they need some healing elements to be able to soothe their allergies, like all those people are your, your ideal clients for honey. They just don’t know it yet. And so it’s your job to help them see it. And the only way, the only way you get good at this, the only way it becomes clear and easy is by doing it. And this is why school sales is so powerful because it’s so much more than just information, information.

Without practice, it’s just information, information plus practice becomes a skill. And that happens inside of your skills lab. But then it goes even further than that, because you can have a skill and practice your skill, but you can practice it wrong. And so this practice of the skill plus some feedback makes it a refined skill. Okay, there’s difference between a skill and a refined skill. And then the repetition that happens inside of the eight week program weeks one through four is the material and then weeks five through eight, you repeat it again, the repetition of the material becomes an automatic, refined skill, it becomes a part of your subconscious, it becomes second nature. And so the material, the eight week material could absolutely stand alone, like it could be a self paced course, there’s no doubt in my mind.

But what makes it work is the container of it, the container of the material, and the container of the labs. Because this repetition of weeks one through four verses five through eight. The way you can think about it is week one through four is like hitting in a batting cage, the ball is coming to you to very consistent speed and a consistent angle, your goal is simply to get stronger by swinging the bat as many times as possible. Weeks five through eight is like getting fed a ball or getting pitched a ball from a live picture, you’re gonna get different speeds, you’re gonna get different spins, you’re gonna get different directions, but you have the skill of reading the pitcher, what most people are doing, they’re swinging in the batting cage over and over and over and over and over and over.

And there’s no no value in being strong if you can’t play the game, and being able to play the game by being pitched to you by life pitcher. That’s where you shine. And that everything all that I just told you is inside of the eight week program. It is set up for you to have the skills, the confidence and the ability to read the pitch in the game of life in the game of sales. know exactly how to get that next skill or excuse me know exactly how to get that next sale and lay the next brick one by one. And next thing you know it you’ll look up and your beautiful masterpiece brick wall will be built his school of sales we close up enrollment July the 17th if it has been on your vision board to take guide culture, which is now school sales in 2022 Now is your time we’re opening the final two cohorts of 2022 the only difference here is when your labs take place.

Now the reason this is happening is because we are teaching live for the first time really ever online. We’ve always kind of like school sales the eight week program specifically is is the first time we’ve ever taught it live. And there’s something really special about having a live experience. And I don’t even know if it’s really like in this session it being valuable but it’s like the whole eight weeks because the session will be really powerful but then during those eight weeks we’ll be in communication with you and we’ll know exactly kind of your questions, your thoughts how it could affect you in this way and that way and in the next week we’ll be able to you know slightly adjust material to make sure it is clicking for you. I think about it like office hours a lot. When I was in college I struggled with math you know, maybe you don’t know but I did and I always went to office hours and I could tell the professor adjust the material slightly to make sure the right things were clicking for me and that is exactly what can happen for you. In school of sales.

This is a once in a blue moon opportunity I do not want you to miss out on it. Grads you also have the option to be inside of School of Sales. You have a very special offer. All of that should it be in your email as well as in the Facebook group. Do not miss this opportunity fam. I cannot wait to see you in class.