by Jim Cathcart

I have the happy problem of receiving more requests for mentoring, coaching and training than I can fulfill. Not that I have large-fee speaking engagements spilling out the door but many friends, clients, colleagues and neighbors have asked me to assist them or their companies. They have smaller budgets than the conventions that typically book me and I’ve had trouble figuring out how to help my friends without breaking the bank, theirs or mine.

Now I have a great solution! No, it’s not “dropping my price”. It is much better than that. I have created an online Television Channel, Motivation.tv. This site has several short video presentations by me, some live in front of an audience, some in a studio but all of them are targeted to help people learn to Motivate – themselves, others, customers, prospects or audiences. And best of all, it’s free. Yep, free. No charge. Zip, nada, just sitting there waiting to be accessed. How do you like the price?

Of course I hope to turn it into a big profit center, but right now it is your way to get my training without a fee. Here’s the plan: Visit the site today. Explore it. Watch the videos and Select one that you think your team would enjoy. Then book a half hour meeting and show them the video. It may help if you can show it on a larger screen than your laptop, but even a laptop will do.

After the show, ask them what ideas stood out. Have each person tell you something they heard or thought of when watching my message. Discuss what that means to them and how they can apply it right away. This should be a very stimulating conversation! Keep notes of the ideas and follow through.

Then drop me a note to share your results. I’d love to hear from you. For those who want more from me; the best resource is a combination of my messages on iLearningGlobal.tv followed by telephone coaching sessions between me and you. I’ve created a couple of dozen presentations of less than ten minutes length that you can access from iLearningGlobal in High Definition on your computer. Here is the link to one of them: http://www.ilearningglobal.tv/Vusion/?pl=playlists/faculty_sample.xml.

And, here’s the 14 minute overview presentation about iLG and how it works.

iLG is a subscription channel like HBO or Starz, except that you can choose the time and title you want. You get 24/7 access to hundreds of presentations by the top speakers in the country on topics that range from Sales to Communication to Motivation, Leadership, Dealing with Change, Stress Control, Negotiation, Fitness, Nutrition, Accounting & Tax Strategies, Philosophy, Customer Loyalty, Relationships, and even programming for Teens. It’s the biggest bargain and greatest training resource I’ve seen in 33 years of full-time professional speaking. For $79.95 (without a contract) you get an unending stream of the programs you want, when you want them. Just tune in from any internet device and select the topic or presenter you want, and voila! you have the presentation.

This allows you to save thousands over the previous methods for training. You decide what subjects need to be addressed, select the presenters you like best for your purposes, and click “play.” Ten minutes later you can choose another or just take some notes to put the ideas into action. Use your iPhone, your laptop or plug in to the TV and see it on the bigger screen. All in High-Definition and in bite sized pieces.

Give it a try and then call or email me so that we can set up a series of chats to take the new ideas to the next level in real-world application. I’m eager to help you and look forward to having you as a regular viewer on both Motivation.tv and iLearningGlobal.

by Jim Cathcart

Self-Reliance must be learned anew by each generation

Nobody grows up knowing how to make it on their own. If they did it would require them to make all the mistakes of the previous generations just in order to catch up with the rest of the world. We desperately need to learn not just from experience but from Other People’s Experiences. To shorten a learning curve just pay attention to what has already been learned. Read books, interview others, go to meetings, explore online resources and learn from others.

That being said, we must also learn to find our own solutions. If we always require others to show us the way then soon there will be no guides left. Everybody will be a follower. 

Leadership ability begins by learning to lead yourself. This is especially true when you are confused, overwhelmed, frustrated or depressed. If you can’t lead You then you surely shouldn’t be leading others. 

So, where does self-reliance, courage to face fears, and the initiative to find new solutions to problems come from? How do people get the ability to stand up to challenges and press forward when they don’t see the solution to their dilemma? 

I believe that this can only come from facing your challenges alone. Standing up to the bully, striking out on your own, opening a new business without much money in the bank, moving to a new town and making friends and building contacts, making sales calls on strangers, going to meetings where you don’t know anyone and finding a way to fit in. This builds courage and character. And this is sorely missing from today’s social environment. Below is an email message whose source I do not know but I’m sure you’ve seen it before. 

It describes a world in which people lived without the universal protections that we endure today. Where people simply made their own way. The thing that makes it so remarkable is the product it produced. It produced people who were self-reliant. They didn’t need a team of lawyers to watch over them, a government agency to provide for their needs, or a social network that saved them from their own mistakes. They became “The Greatest Generation” and the offspring of those same folks. 

I’m in the second wave of that. I was born on the opening day of the baby boom, in 1946 and grew up in a world where I was expected to learn to deal with whatever life dealt to me. Today I’m vastly more self-reliant than many people I meet and hear about. So are those who trod the same path that I did. 

Let’s return to the days where we didn’t rescue people from life but rather encouraged them to face whatever it brought them. The more self-reliant contributors we add to our society, the less government and regulations we will need. Hate bureaucratic red tape and endless forms required just to do business? So do I. So let’s start helping ourselves and our kids learn to rely on ourselves. 

Here’s the email message: Those Born Before 1979 

by Jim Cathcart 

Imagine that you have a box that is covered with shiny new pennies and, instead of looking into the box, you peel off a few pennies each day and spend them. Only later, when it is too late to be of real value to you do you discover that the box was filled with diamonds! How would you feel as you looked into the empty box where the diamonds had been? 

I believe that all of us are doing something similar to that. We have so much potential to do good within us. There are so many people who could truly benefit from what we offer. We think of compliments to give and then let the opportunity pass without giving them. We notice the beauty of our friend or partner and then we don’t comment on it. We also sit on top of resources and just use the surface of them. 

Think of how much potential exists within just one of the software programs in your computer, phone or pda. How much more could you get from it by just spending 30 minutes learning one function that you don’t yet use? 

Folks, we’ve got to stop stopping short. I recently mentioned that we bought a new car. The car has a built in garage door opener and an impressive navigation system, but for the past week we have been using our hand held remote to open the door. That’s because with two attempts I haven’t yet figured out how to program the new remote. (Yes, I read the manual, thank you very much. ) I’ll stick with it till I or someone else gets it done. 

What are some of the areas in which you’ve stopped short of finding the diamonds? Take some time today to simply list them. Put them on a note and place it in your pocket. Keep it there until it distracts you enough to take new action. Just expand one area of your life and the benefits will spill over into others. 

Here’s an exercise you can do right now. Stop reading this blog post and explore this website. Just click around to see how far it goes with each topic, how many links and special video clips are here. Don’t think too much, just explore. What you will discover is that there are more than 220 pages of information here! There are 75 free book summaries of the latest business books. There are instructional videos, audio lessons, more than 160 blog posts (articles). And through the hundreds of links built into the site, there are boundless other resources for you. Most of them free. 

Now, if that’s true for just this one little obscure website, how much more likely is it to be true in other parts of your life? 

So, start living more fully. Expand your thinking, broaden your reach, use your resources and see how much good you could do with a little extra attention and effort.

by Jim Cathcart

I bought a new car yesterday and so did many other people, but not nearly as many as last year. It’s real clear that the marketplace is taking more naps these days. Showrooms and store aisles are not as crowded as they were. But there are still buyers out there. So, why aren’t the salespeople even more vigilant, more innovative and more diligent in their follow through?

A few weeks ago I went to an “auto-mall” near my home and walked the lots and showrooms of six dealers on a Sunday around 11AM. I made a point of being conspicuous and walking up to the cars I was interested in, reading the window stickers and even browsing brochures in the dealership lobbies. Note that I said “six dealers”. In Southern California, on a lazy Sunday morning when I was the ONLY browser/buyer on the lot, only two, count them 2, salespeople greeted me. Several other salespeople saw me, made eye contact and some even smiled or nodded at me, but only two came over to speak with me, out of six dealerships, two!

It gets worse. The two who spoke with me did not ask my name nor offer theirs. They simply said “Good morning, can I help you with anything?” I said, “I’m just exploring to see what’s available.” They walked with me and told me details about a couple of their cars but did not probe to see if I was planning to buy, hoping to trade or if I had any specific requirements. What were they thinking?!!!

They weren’t thinking. I’m sure that the same passive “selling” behavior can be found in every industry, but why? Especially right now when every sale counts and some companies are having to lay off staff and close facilities. Isn’t this the time when the maximum sales efforts should be exerted? Shouldn’t we be coaching our sales teams each morning and reviewing results and observations each evening? Wouldn’t now be a great time to do a short sales training session each day or at least every week?

As I said, I bought a new car yesterday. Now let me show you the “inside the buyer’s head” view of what happened. Day before yesterday I visited one dealership and found a car I was interested in. The sales person who was “up” walked over and told me a bit about the car, then I left. I came back later with my wife and told yet another sales person that I wanted to trade my wife’s car for theirs. We went through the usual process and finally the “finance manager” (translation; Closer) came over to get me to take their first offer. I declined and told him what I was willing and ready to pay. He said, “We are about $3,500 apart. So you need to either come up with more money or find another car, or sell your trade in on your own.” I thanked him and said, “We are too far apart to have a deal.” We left.

Now, they had my credit application, my business card, home and cell phone, had appraised my trade in and knew what I wanted in a car. They also knew what number would result in a Yes. In other words, they knew all they needed to know to sell me a car that day! One hour after I left, they had made no effort to contact me with another offer or suggestion. So I called them. (Talk about your eager buyer!)
I was a hungry fish already on their line and all they had to do was reel me in. No action.

I said, “Find me another car with the features I want that has a good enough profit margin in it for you. Get me what I want and I’ll buy tonight.” No call back. OK, if I had bad credit (I didn’t) or wasn’t a serious buyer (I was) or had some quality that made me an undesirable sale (nope) then I could say, “I wouldn’t have called either.” But that was not the case. I was a ready buyer with the money and the credit rating to do the deal.

Yesterday I went by a different dealer on an impulse and found a car I liked. A model that I had never considered before. And within one and one-half hours I had bought the car, signed the papers and turned in my trade-in. They are prepping the car for delivery later this morning. This dealer is one block down the street from the first dealer I mentioned above.

Dealer number two, the one I bought from, was not dramatically better than dealer number one, they just happened to have a car I liked and would sell it at a price I deemed fair. They were courteous and respectful and they didn’t play games with me, nor would I have allowed it. The result is: they made the sale…in a down economy, in under two hours, with no outgoing sales effort to bring me in, and with no referrals nor coupons nor special promotions. I just dropped in on an impulse and now I’m a customer.

Your customers are out there too. There are lots of people who are still buying and selling every day. But we have to step up right now more than usual. We need to be learning new skills daily, through online video, articles, books, discussions, teleconferences, etc. We also need to be setting goals every day and week, discussing them each morning and reviewing our experiences each evening. What you do each day matters more now than before. There are buyers out there but there are fewer of them, and you still have competition. Get better every day before you are forced to make a hard choice.

I’m here to help. Watch some of my videos on this website, show them to others, read the many blogposts and print out or email the ones you like to others on your team. Explore my Online Store and get some of my ebooks, books, DVDs, CDs or learning tools. Read some of the 75 FREE business book summaries available here in the Store. Note that I said free!
Call me and have me meet with your sales team or sales managers to help them practice Intelligent Motivation with your sales force. Sometimes a bit of coaching can change a mindset that then changes behavior and results in new sales.