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“The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be.”

~ William James

Are You REALLY Getting Closer to the Life of Your Dreams?

Time is one of the most powerful creative forces… And one of the most powerful destructive forces. It all depends how you use it.

I could dive deep into the philosophy of growth and decay… But I want to focus on the change you can control so I’ll just say it briefly:

“Every day, you are either moving closer to your dreams or further away. It all depends on the direction in which you are heading. Time can increase the effect of your choice, but you control the direction.”

If you are letting the days slide by without taking deliberate actions – both large and small – to move in the direction you choose then time is not your friend. You know it’s true. You can see it reflected in your:

Fitness
Weight
Education
Career or Business
Income
Wealth
House (maintenance and cleanliness)…

You get the idea. If you just let any of these areas go, they usually decline.

The same is true when it comes to building the life of your dreams: it won’t happen without discipline and direction.

Do You Even Know What You Want?

I was talking to a friend the other day about this. Ellie is a successful VP who is earning a great salary, has lots of perks, plenty of room to move up the ladder, a partner who adores her…

BUT when she looks at her life she says to herself, “Is this all there is?”

I asked her what she really wanted and she shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I just know that what I have isn’t enough. You’re probably going to say that I ought to be grateful for having so much and stop complaining… Or write in a gratitude journal or something, Chandell. Please don’t.”

Now that’s a problem!

We’ll come back to Ellie later, but first I want to tell you about Seth. Seth had truly made himself a success. He was the first person in his family to go to university (his father was in and out of prison while he grew up) and he completed his Law degree with high honours. He quickly rose up in his top tier law firm and he was on the fast track to partnership (a long-term goal of his).

One day he looked around at all he had made for himself: career, relationship, wealth, opportunity, hobbies, respect… And said, “Is this all there is?”

And… one of Seth’s hobbies is hiking. Not just anywhere, but hiking in the mountains where the distant view is always more alluring than the near view.

Seth applied that understanding to set a next goal for himself – not an ultimate goal, but a next goal. He could have said to himself, “I’ve arrived and it’s not all it cracked up to be.” But he didn’t. Instead he took control of his future and the attitudes of his mind.

You Don’t Need to Stay Where You Are!

Wherever you are today and however you feel about that, you don’t need to spend the rest of your life in that place (and I’m using ‘place’ to cover mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual options). You can change and you really don’t need anyone to help you (although a mentor or coach is often a tremendous benefit.

You don’t even need to relocate physically to create momentum and direction in your life. You just need to make that mental switch from a ‘victim’ (with a long list of reasons why), to a ‘victor’ with a short list of things to do and an even shorter list of attitudes to cultivate!

It’s NOT (Just) About Gratitude!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against gratitude journals and I think about things I’m grateful for every day and usually write them down. Gratitude won’t help you reach for the stars, though. It’s more likely to keep you earthbound unless you are careful because energy flows where attention goes and if you focus too much on being grateful for what you have, you won’t take the next step.

As Ellie and I continued our conversation she realised that she simply wasn’t all that interested in the next step on the corporate ladder. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, it was just that the higher she climbed the less she was involved in the parts of her work she loved.

By the time we finished that conversation she knew what she wanted… And she had a plan to get it… And her enthusiasm and vigour were back in full force.

Externally, nothing changed for Ellie. The change in her attitude has already started to bear fruit.

What About You?

Ellie went through a process called a H.O.W.T.O. Session with me. It’s a 90-minute paid session that brings clarity and helps you focus on what you really want so that you can make the decisions you need to make. In that short time, she was able to articulate and recognise what was really bothering her and do something about it.

If that sound like something you need you can book a session using the button below.

Book Your H.O.W.T.O Session

“Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. Hill inspired millions of people to step out of the misery or constraint of their existing circumstances and create a future full of unimaginable success, yet at one point he had to sell his typewriter to pay his bills and was rescued by a friend. Why?”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

It’s Not What You Know, It’s What You Do!

I work with many business owners and sales people who have invested heavily in their education and personal development and who have a deep knowledge of their subject, yet who are not seeing the results they anticipated. In fact, that’s why most of them come to me… they realise that they need accountability and coaching so that they can effectively implement the theory they already know.

One of the things that makes working with people so endlessly fascinating is our different strengths and preferences. I love ideas… and the thing that I love most about them is the possibilities they present for testing in real life.

When I first discovered the power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) I was fascinated by the theory because of the possibilities of its application in everyday life outside the training room. My response was to practice each technique in every possible situation and to master them all. It wasn’t until I went to my NLP Master Practitioner Certification that I realised how many people who had learned these same techniques had tucked them aside in the ‘knowledge’ part of their brain rather than using them.

The problem with this approach is that your unused knowledge is as effective as ignorance in creating desirable outcomes – that is to say, if you have knowledge but don’t apply it, you might just as well have conserved the time, energy, and money you spent acquiring it.

The Positive Power of Ideas

Ideas are the lifeblood of your personal growth and success. Just as you need to have blood constantly pumping through your body oxygenating and detoxifying your cells, you need a steady flow of ideas to oxygenate and detoxify your business and career so that you remain engaged and flexible.

There’s an old saying: “If your output exceeds your intake then your upkeep will be your downfall,” that applies to many areas of life. It’s certainly true when it comes to the flow of ideas into your professional life. I’m a big fan of developing habits and routines to take the pressure off your willpower but you also need to mix in some new ideas to keep things fresh.

It’s important for every professional to keep learning and growing and to tap into ideas outside your own specialty because that will make you even more effective.

The Persistent Power of Implementation

If ideas are the lifeblood of health and growth, comprehensive implementation and action are the secret of success. Napoleon Hill was a very gifted man whose teaching has revolutionised many lives and who taught the importance of acting as well as thinking. At one stage he was not only highly respected, but also extremely wealthy… Then he lost everything and was rescued from destitution by once of his own students. In an interview later in life he made the following comment, “I defined 17 principles of success and taught others the principle of saving, but I forgot to apply it rigorously myself. In the end omitting to practice just one of these principles cost me everything.”

I’ve worked with business owners who were doing many things right, yet not seeing the success they anticipated. It turned out that the one or two minor things they ignored were their downfall. When they implemented just one or two missing elements consistently everything changed.

If you’ve ever been tempted to say, “I know that already!” when you talked to someone about your problems in life or business, then you’re in good company… It’s what the majority of average people say (and how they act).

BUT… I’d like to challenge you: Are you doing everything you know? Most people aren’t. Successful people are those who recognise that they need help with implementation and find a coach or mentor who will ask the difficult questions and provide the impetus to implement consistently, persistently, and effectively not just in the areas they are naturally drawn to, but across every area of business and life.

Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact

Specially designed for business owners and sales professionals who want to increase their professional standing and impact as well as their income and profitability this course covers the essential foundations that you need to implement effectively and provides accountability and useful tools so you can achieve this easily and effortlessly.

“The root cause of all our problems is our unconscious mind, and the beliefs and behaviours that we store there. The real problem here is that they are unconscious so it’s very hard to pinpoint them and change them.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

The Root Cause of Your Discontent

“I’ve been passed over again!” Samantha’s voice was shaking with anger and frustration. “It doesn’t matter how good my results are, this *** idiot won’t let me move ahead… she’s just like my last manager!”

Samantha is an effervescent extrovert – she is so bubbly that she scares some people. As a high-performing sales professional, this is great because it doesn’t matter how many rejections she gets, she’s always ready to get up and go again. However, she scares off some prospects and her managers sometimes mistake her enthusiasm for naivety and that was holding back her career. This was the fourth time she had been passed over by a manager because of her vivacity and charm and she was desperate for a solution.

During our coaching sessions she quickly realised that while she was genuinely effervescent, she amped it up unconsciously because, as a child she had always been praised for that characteristic. Once she became aware of that, it didn’t take long before she learned how to read and respond to other people better and find more effective ways of communicating with them appropriately.

Because she was truly interested in finding solutions to people’s problems, she quickly learned how to read her prospects better over the phone or in person and to tone down her effervescence when needed and close more sales. Incidentally, that was the last time she was passed over for a promotion.

The Resourcefulness Within You

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” and until you can see a problem it’s very difficult to find effective solutions.

Samantha honestly never realised that her bubbly personality was a learned response to praise. She didn’t change her personality as much as allow the other side which had always been hidden to shine through. Using some Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) skills for building rapport and strengthening relationships she learned to read other people better and find ways of making them comfortable.

She was excited about the fact that she was able to close nearly twice the number of sales, but she was far more excited by the fact that she was able to build a closer relationship with both her sister and her own son – both of whom were introverts. They’d always got on fairly well, but now they were actually enjoying being together.

Each of us has a unique personality and gifts and we naturally lean more towards people who are similar to ourselves. That’s fine, but it can also be limiting… especially in a business context… UNLESS we deliberately cultivate the skills we need to communicate and work effectively with people who are quite different to us and have their own special contribution to make.

If you find yourself encountering similar situations repeatedly, it’s important to define what is creating them. Often, you have unconscious habits and thought patterns that are triggering other people’s reactions… habits and thought patterns that you have the power to change once you are aware of them. If left untended, these become roadblocks to progress and satisfaction.

Changing Direction and Creating Momentum

I firmly believe that each of us have all the resources we need to make a success of both our business and our personal lives – it’s just that sometimes we get caught up in ways of thinking and behaving that mess us up over and over again.

In a way, we hate to hear this because we like to think that our problems are unique and that’s why we can’t move past them, but if you think about it differently, this reality is quite comforting: – If others have found a tool that helps them change, then I can too. I don’t need to stay ‘stuck’ in my problem!

The root cause of all our problems lies in our unconscious mind, and the beliefs and behaviours that we store there. Since they are unconscious, it’s very hard to pinpoint and change them. When I attended my first Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training I’d been seeing a psychologist to help with depression for months and going over the same pile of misery every week. Yet, just 7 short days of training completely transformed my outlook, and I’ve seen the same thing happen over and over again in others.

The key is that while Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) doesn’t teach that your past isn’t important, it does teach that you are not bound by your past and it delivers the tools you need to release the chains that are holding you to your old ways. It is almost like magic!

Getting Unstuck

For Samantha, the key was our H.O.W.T.O. Session and some subsequent Time Line Therapy® work which showed her the root cause of her behaviour and then set her free to develop the flexibility of communication she needed to move forward. Other people have found similar freedom by discovering the unconscious beliefs and behaviours that keep them trapped in a business cycle of feast and famine, or in a life of poverty, a career or relationship that is stifling their dreams or some kind of addiction or co-dependency. However, while awareness is foundational for transformation, freeing yourself from the emotional traps you set for yourself and accessing the inner resources you need to move forward are also crucial.

If you’d like help with this book a H.O.W.T.O. Session now. You’ll be amazed at how different you feel when you free yourself from the baggage you’ve been unconsciously accumulating for years!

Book Your H.O.W.T.O. Session

“In most Sales Teams there is a predominance of either hunters or farmers. This usually reflects the preference of the Sales Manager and is one cause of poor sales results.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

What Do Hunters and Farmers Have to Do With Sales Anyway?

There are two primary types of sales people:

Hunters:

As the term suggests, these people love to talk to new prospects and close sales. They are fantastic at conjuring sales almost out of thin air. Metaphorically speaking, they’re the ‘find and kill’ sales people. They are happy to cold call total strangers, move quickly into a compelling sales pitch, and often walk away with a sale or definite appointment. However, they’re not so good at nurturing relationships over time and turning following up prospects who are not ready to buy.

Farmers:

In contrast to the hunters, farmer-type sales people prefer to talk to people who have expressed interest. They often stretch out the sales cycle and their sales results may be lower. Their approach to sales is more ‘tend and harvest’. Farmer-types find cold calling repellant and, not surprisingly, they rarely get around to doing it. On the other hand, they are endlessly patient and persevering when it comes to following up prospects, staying in touch until they are ready to buy.

However, the exciting thing is that anyone can learn to be a hybrid by studying the opposite mode of sales and you can also build a power team that incorporates both styles.

What Difference Does it Make to my Business?

Both hunters and farmers can be stellar sales people who accelerate your business’s profitability and growth. In fact, high-performing sales teams need a balance of the two types for best results. However, teams frequently lean toward one type or the other because sales managers usually prefer to hire people with the same sales style as themselves.

Here’s the problem: some qualified prospects are ready to buy and make decisions quickly, others are not yet ready to buy either because the timing isn’t right, or because they like to make decisions slowly. Both types of buyers are qualified, but their timelines are different.

If you put a farmer-type sales person in front of prepared and decisive buyers, they may get frustrated while waiting for the contract to appear and give up. If you put a hunter-type in front of a buyer who needs time to think things over, the buyer may feel pressured and simply tune out.

Swap out your sales people and match them with the buyer-types and your outcomes will be quite different.

Do You Know Whether Your Sales Team is Made up of Hunters or Farmers?

Identifying the sales style of your current sales team members is an important first step in transforming your results. The second step is helping each person to grow their sales skills and awareness.

I’ve noticed that some sales people hold the ‘my way is the highway’ attitude. Their thinking goes as follows: “because in the past I have delivered stellar sales using my approach and outperformed other team members this is the best way of selling our product.”

The problem is, this attitude works until it doesn’t…

A shift in the economy;
A change in personnel (in your company, or your clients’);
Developments in technology;

…Or any other transformation can put a damper on sales.

In NLP we say that the person with the most flexibility controls the system. The application of this principle to sales would say:

The person with the most flexible sales repertoire controls business growth and the short-term future of the company.

The exciting thing about this is that sales strategies, and the communication and rapport strategies that underly them can be learned and developed IF your team members are willing to grow.

Knowledge is Power

Understanding the characteristic sales styles of people on your sales team is crucial for growth and prosperity. As a sales manager, knowing your own preferences is also important so that you can balance out your natural prejudices when you hire new people.

You also need to recognise whether your key people are open to developing new skills in the opposite area or, at least, appreciating their own weaknesses. It’s fine to have specialist hunters and farmers as long as they’re prepared to say, “This prospect would be better suited to your sales style than mine.” This way, your business can reap the benefits of both approaches and close more sales.

In-House Sales Training & Assessment

Would you like some expert help evaluating and empowering your sales team so that you can improve results, increase morale, and extend the skills of every member of your team?

Sometimes an objective and skilled outsider can see potential, problems, and solutions and provide a perspective that no one inside the organisation can match.

If you’re interested, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au to ask about our In-House Sales Training & Assessment program and we’ll send your our questionnaire and schedule a call.

“An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.”

~Robert Frost

What are Metaphors in NLP?

To avoid confusion, let’s start with a common definition of metaphor that you probably encountered in your high school literature class:

“A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.”

Your teacher probably went on to demonstrate this with examples of famous metaphors – mostly pithily stated and highly memorable phrases. This is good as far as it goes, but NLP draws on a far older form of metaphor in which example and teaching are embedded in stories that shaped how people were to think about:

Friendship;
Citizenship;
Marriage;
Love;
Riches;
Fame;
Adversity;
Opposition;
Etc.

If you want to see how metaphor works in this way, think about the ancient texts that were used to teach children how to live and grow and respond to their world even more than as tools of literacy. You’re thinking of Homer, Vergil, the Bible, Confucius, the Koran, even Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and the oral traditions that permeate many pre-literate societies.

This is metaphor… a powerful tool for shaping hearts, minds, and behaviours.

How Metaphors Inspire and Support Change

Metaphors are stories that capture the imagination and harness the will.

In some cultures, stories are forbidden… unless they are part of the received tradition. This is an acknowledgement of the transformative power of story because this response is based on fear, and people fear power, not impotence.

Fiction is not frivolous. It is dangerous when it comes to inspiring change. It’s why news broadcasters and politicians zoom in on stories rather than statements to communicate their message. It’s also a very powerful agent of deep-seated behavioural change that authorities know they should censor and handle with great care because most stories have unintended consequences.

Taking Willpower out of the Transformation Equation

Most of us can remember stories that we were told as children. Some of us were also banned from reading or hearing certain books or stories because well-meaning adults (rightly) feared that we would be subconsciously influenced by them.

But what about the possibility that we could strategically use stories as metaphors that guided us down a chosen path, tools that would carry us forward when our courage or will-power flagged? That is how NLP teaches us to use metaphors for ourselves and for those whom we are coaching or working with.

Like any powerful tool, metaphors have potential to do harm as well as good which is why it’s important to think them through carefully and examine them from many angles before presenting them to a client.

Building or Choosing Metaphors

The principles of building or selecting a metaphor that will help you or your client achieve the desired outcome is fairly straightforward:

Identify the sequence of behaviour or events that you would like to change;
Consider the individual’s consistent behaviours and sequence them carefully;
Identify the desired new outcomes and choices;
Anchor the past and future behaviours in the client’s model of the world and establish clear connections between the client’s situation and the story;
Establish new resources in the client’s mind that will help them engage with the story and create their own identification and momentum;
Resolve the metaphor with some degree of ambiguity and use appropriate verbal cues to ensure continued openness.
Test your metaphor to ensure that there are no hidden pitfalls that could create undesirable outcomes.

When you have mapped out steps 1-3, often you will find an existing metaphor that fits your purpose and only requires some slight additions and tweaks. Once you discover the power of metaphors, you will find more ways of crafting and using them in your own life, as well as for others.

Are You a Candidate for NLP Mastery Academy?

Have you always wanted to dive more deeply into the powerful applications of the NLP techniques and teachings for everyday life than your certification course or books enabled.

We have developed a ground-breaking course that meets fortnightly to learn and practice NLP techniques and explore their application so hat we will see the positive effects in all areas of life.

If you’re interested in learning more about this course, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au Use this subject: “Please tell me more about the NLP Mastery Academy” and tell us about your goals and NLP background in the email.

“Ideas confer power, and power causes change.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Do You Believe That a Solution Exists Even if You Can’t See One?

Emily was immersed in her problems and believed that the only possible to solution was to endure her situation (with no end in sight) or take her own life. She was so convinced that this was true that it never even occurred to her to speak to anyone about any of the things that were going on at home or at work.

Her manager had invited me to run an in-house NLP course for his executive and sales team and during one of the exercises her state of mind was revealed. We were talking about finding solutions to problems and the ways in which people respond when they lose hope in the possibility of a solution. I noticed that Emily, who had been engaged throughout the course, was suddenly hyper-attentive as I taught about using linguistic techniques to explore new approaches to familiar problems and as we moved into an exercise I kept a close ear on her group.

The exercise they were doing involved an observer, a practitioner, and a subject who presented a problem. Emily started out as the observer, then went on to display a great deal of skill as the practitioner, before taking her turn as the subject. The problem she shared with the group was clearly a genuine problem, but equally clearly only the teensiest glimpse of the underlying issue.

At the end of the exercise, she asked if we could talk privately.

As she told me, “I suddenly realised when I heard you teach this topic that I was trapped in my own thinking. When I used the technique you taught on Sam and then experienced it myself, I wondered if I was missing something about my situation and I started to believe that there must be a solution to my problem that I hadn’t thought of yet.”

Realising that a constructive and creative solution must exist gave Emily the hope she needed to look at her situation differently.

You Cannot Solve a Problem with the Level of Thinking that Created It

If we look at history… The history of nations, science, civilisation, economics, social, fashion… it’s easy to see that everything runs along pretty much unchanged and then suddenly something comes from outside and the thinking and solutions leap forward into a new state of normal.

It’s easier to see when we look back than when we are bang smack in the centre of a crisis which is why history is such a potent teacher.

At this very moment, we are caught up in a storm of crises that threaten us with potential drastic consequences. As long as we rely on the kind of thinking that created them we will be stuck in a cycle of one-step-forward-two-steps-back consequences so we need to look outside the traditional approaches.

This takes courage. It takes openness to change and to the possibility that we might need to think quite differently in many areas of life. Often, this doesn’t happen until people are truly desperate… Or until they come into contact with people who have already developed a different approach and ‘jumped out of the box’.

Finding Effective Solutions

The main reason why truly successful people in all areas of life hire coaches is so they can access a different level of thinking and solution-finding.

“You don’t know what you don’t know.” – and ignorance will always limit our progress, our possibilities, and (often) our dreams. We cannot see our own blind spots and so we constantly need to be exposed to people who will challenge our

Thinking & mindset;
Habits & behaviour;
Goals & dreams;
As well as the underlying assumptions.

Your current way of thinking has brought you to this place of awareness that there is something more… a problem to be solved. You need outside help to help you find and implement the solution.

That help can come from:

Books and media
Courses
Peers
Mentors
Coaches

Your choice will be influenced by the urgency of your need for a solution, your other commitments, and your resources. Any of the above solutions can be effective, the principle goal is to open yourself to *new approaches and new ways of thinking that are outside of your current ones.

*“NEW” here, does not necessarily refer to temporal recency. It is new-to-you-thinking. Some of the most transformative out-of-the-box thinking is based on ancient wisdom.

NLP Mastery Academy

On June 15th 2020 we’re starting our first online NLP Mastery Academy group intended to empower students to dive more deeply into the powerful applications of the NLP techniques and teachings for everyday life.

The biggest challenge that most students of NLP face isn’t learning what the techniques are. It’s discovering how to use them to empower themselves and others at work, at home, and at school to increase energy and enhance their performance, relationships, and results. As we meet fortnightly to learn or refresh our knowledge about the techniques and explore their uses we know that we will see the positive effects in all areas of life.

If you’re interested in learning more about this course, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au Use this subject: “Please tell me more about the NLP Mastery Academy” and tell us about your goals and NLP background in the email.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

~H.L. Mencken

The Danger of Agreeable People

I like spending time with people who share my perspectives on life, success, and various other key topics… And I bet you do too!

There is nothing wrong with listening to and learning from people with whom you are philosophically aligned. There is a problem, however, if those are the only people’s views you ever hear because when everyone is saying the same thing, you don’t even question the underlying assumptions. Not only do you miss opportunities to stay ahead of the wave, you also miss important insights into the strengths, weaknesses and sales opportunities in front of you.

Please note: I’m not talking about the type of people who simply stir up controversy for the sake of argument, but those who have a different perspective and view.

Influence AND Independence

It’s part of human nature to spend most of our time listening to the same people (usually ones we agree with, sometimes people who make us angry).

BUT… It’s also dangerous because when we listen to someone we give them influence over us. As the proverb says, “If all you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.” It’s not a particularly effective strategy for a carpenter, it’s a disaster for a business owner.

We all have our preferred mentors, experts we follow, strategies we adhere to… And that’s essential. However, it’s also important for each of us to make sure we protect ourselves against the dangers inherent in our own selected echo chamber by exposing ourselves to other opinions and perspectives so that we can see past our unspoken assumptions.

The difference may not be reflected in our behaviour or strategy. It is definitely reflected in our confidence and results.

How is This Possible?

Strategically, it’s important to have clarity and perseverance.

That’s why it’s important to have a guiding influencer (or pool of influencers) who share your strategy. If you don’t you’ll end up zig-zagging all over the place or (even worse) ending up in the classic ‘two-steps forward, one-step back’ situation because you’ll lack any real compass.

Tactically and philosophically you need to be listening to people from outside your echo chamber. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with them or not, listening to their position with an open mind will shine a spotlight on your prejudices and clarify your response… You may even learn something new that will set you on a unique path.

When I realise that everyone in most of the groups I’m in is talking approvingly (or even reverently) about the same people, ideas, and books I start to feel uncomfortable because the natural end-result is another set of identical approaches. Then, I know it’s time to pay attention to ‘those idiots on the other side’… That person or group who has a substantial following that my people think is unbelievably stupid.

There is always someone like that… Pick any context: politics, climate change, covid-19 response, crime and punishment – or any other topic because most people like to operate in a binary world for simplicity’s sake. The reality is that ‘the other side’ also has a philosophical and rational base (with which you disagree) and some potential solutions (which you might be able to use).

The very worst outcome is that you end up with more reasons to confidently promote your own solution.

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

New ideas rarely materialise from thin air.

New ideas never come when you copy your competitors or models.

New ideas DO come when you look outside your industry and see how other people solve similar problems.

For example:

McDonald’s drive through windows was borrowed from US banks;
Agile project management in IT was borrowed from Toyota;
Lean manufacturing principles in almost every industry came from Toyota and Honda;
Ad Words and PPC advertising came from direct response mail-order;
Online shopping malls came from mail order catalogues;
Time Share Seminars came from the Insurance industry…

All of these borrowings created new opportunities outside the industry that conceived them and multiplied profits and sales. None of them happened when people just looked around their own echo chamber.

But I Don’t Like Arguing...

You don’t need to argue with anyone. All you need to do is to set aside your prejudices and preferences and listen. The more effectively you’ll do this the more you’ll be open to new ideas either for delivering your existing product or selling it.

I’ve lost count of the number of ideas and selling points this approach has brought my way over the years, but one of my clients applied a technique that she learned from her hairdresser to her accounting practice and increased the average annual client value by over 23%.

“Your mind is bombarded with over 11 million pieces of information per second, but it can only process 126 bps. The rest of that information is discarded – especially if it doesn’t agree with what we already believe.”

Based on The NLP Model of Communication

If you’ve ever thought “It’s all too much!” You’re right.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the…

Information that is being blasted at you?
Opportunities that you have to learn, interact, serve, and engage?
Decisions that need to be made (or left to make themselves by default)?
People who want to connect with you?

Guess what…?

That’s because of the way our brains are wired and the increasing speed of information delivery.

When I first studied NLP, we were told that we were exposed to 11 million bits of information per second while our brains could only process 126 bits per second. Some more recent studies suggest that the differential could be even greater, but statistically the difference is already so infinitely enormous that slight changes in the actual numbers have little effect on the net result that:

We are forced to delete, distort, and generalise on an immense scale because we can process less than 0.00001% of the information our brains receive each second.

It’s little wonder that we sometimes feel overwhelmed and are tempted to accept over-simplifications or shut down our critical faculty just to cope with everything because, although most of this happens unconsciously, during times of stress we instinctively try to grasp more than our brains are capable of processing.

What’s the solution to overwhelm?

Accurately defining the problem is the first step towards a solution.

When we recognise that everyone is subject to the same limitations and that we’re all trained (by upbringing, physiology, and environment) to perceive different sets of that information and apply our own personal ‘shorthand’ system for cataloguing and interpreting this information our ability to understand and accept others grows. Your shorthand system determines your ‘model of the world’: the belief system which shapes your thinking about (and your response to) issues, people, and circumstances. This is largely shaped by your upbringing and environment and most people are unconscious of it.

You can take some deliberate steps to reduce the input that is bombarding you if it’s causing sensory overwhelm.

Empowering Yourself… Understanding Others

Personally, I find the awareness of this reality quite empowering because, as Carl Jung says, “that which was unconscious, when made conscious loses its power’. Because of my understanding of the filtering that is happening, I can do two things:

I can control and train my unconscious mind to select the information that will strengthen and empower me so that I consciously change which of those 11 million bits I see and how you interpret them; and
Recognise that other people’s thinking is shaped by their history and current choices so I can accept that they may not yet be aware of the things that influence their beliefs unconsciously.

What about you? Have you taken responsibility for your unconscious beliefs and set up habits to consciously select the filters you use?

3 Empowering Questions

Here are some simple questions you can ask to bring your unconscious thoughts and values into consciousness….

Is this empowering me?
If yes, could I fine-tune my inputs to get even better results?
If no, what can I replace these thoughts and attitudes with to help me develop positive thought that encourages me to take control of my life and change the things I’m not happy about.

In turbulent times like these when we are being bombarded by negative thoughts and emotions this is especially important.

NLP Mastery Course

One of the things that appealed to me about Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) even before I started studying it seriously was the promise it made to help me control my reactions to my environment and become more flexible in my relationships and negotiations (with myself and others). Many other people have had the same thought, and have been excited when they first realised the true power of their knowledge… Only to find that they forgot about all the tools and techniques they had learned.

The NLP Mastery Course is designed to bring all these things to the top of your mind and help you integrate them into your daily life.

If you’ve already studied NLP you’ll remember that sense of control and optimism you felt when you realised just how much untapped power was within you. Maybe now would be a good time to take an NLP refresher course and revisit how all the techniques you learned enrich your everyday life. If you haven’t yet discovered the power of NLP, maybe now would be a great time to learn.

If you’re interested, click the link below to schedule a call with me to talk about my new fortnightly online NLP program and see if it’s right for you.

Schedule an NLP Information Call with Chandell

“If you can’t communicate effectively, then it’s almost impossible to lead your team well. Often the key to better results lies in better communication.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta ~

What Is A Leader’s Role in a Sales Team?

One of my favourite clients invited me to do some additional work with their sales team to increase their resilience and provide them with additional tools during these challenging and uncertain times. This was a clear demonstration of leadership and concern for their employees in the midst of their own challenges and also an acknowledgement of the importance of communicating this concern in many ways.

As business owners and team leaders our primary concern is naturally about the impact of this uncertainty on our own business and metrics. However, a true leader knows two really important things about their people:

We’re all human. That means that what is going on in one area of our life impacts other areas. Financial stress, disruption to routines, reduced or heightened social interactions, health concerns… They all affect your team members’ performance, so whatever you can do to help people manage these situations and develop resilience matters.
Different people react to different stimuli. This is a variation documented in the book, The Five Love Languages which talks about how we all have preferred methods of receiving and communicating affection. Different members of your team will respond to different efforts to encourage and communicate. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

As a leader, you need to reach out to your team and motivate them in ways that they value… And you need to equip your team members to reach out to clients in different ways, too. If you don’t do this, then you can expect to see your indifference reflected in your performance metrics.

Effective Leaders Create High Performing Teams

There are star performers in every industry and every business. They are the people who rise to the top and stand out no matter what is going on around them. Leading star performers can be challenging but in tough times these people continue to perform and contribute so they don’t showcase the calibre of their leaders.

The biggest test of an effective leader is their ability to create high performing teams. It’s extraordinary to watch a leader take an under-performing team and mould them into high performers and this kind of leadership is one of the biggest assets a business can have. From my observation, these transformational leaders have three core qualities:

Vision
Flexible Communication
Analytical Ability (for both people and situations)

Today, I want to zero-in on the second one: flexible communication skills.

Empowered Multi-Level Communication

We all tend to unconsciously model what we see around us. Sometimes we reject an example so emphatically that we move in the opposite direction, but that isn’t the usual procedure.

What I’ve noticed in several organisations recently is the correlation between the way the leadership team is communicating with their teams and each other and the marketplace performance of the teams. Many of these are sales teams, a few are in the executive suite or HR but the common denominator is communication skills.

One company attracts a specific personality-type of results-driven salespeople. In the current uncertain economy their sales results dropped drastically and morale plummeted at the same time. The situation was so bad that the management realised the only things that were stopping the team from resigning en masse were the unemployment figures so they invited me to sit on some sales calls.

I was fairly sure of what I was about to discover after talking to the directors but, knowing the dangers of assumption, I worked hard to keep an open mind while I observed a sales team meeting and some calls. It was no surprise to discover that the team members reflected management’s obsession with results and made no effort to discover what was going on for the clients. The team was using the same opening and pitch that had been wildly successful a few months earlier and had no clue why it no longer worked. It was a direct reflection of their leadership team’s style.

Flexibility and Growth

Initially, the leaders blamed the sales team, the sales team blamed the clients, the clients blamed coronavirus, the government, and the economy.

Great! No one wins when you are just looking around and for someone to blame.

I actually had to demo a successful pitch to get the team to pay attention to. By listening to the client’s verbal cues and watching his demeanour I turned a rejection into a substantial contract (supported by the sales reps product knowledge). That gained their attention and opened the door for some in-house training. Within days, sales results were improving and morale rose, too in response to the communication techniques and cues they learned.

What impressed me most was the openness of the leadership team to recognise the role they had played in setting up failure and their desire to learn and change too. That openness was immediately reflected in their team.

Secrets Great Communicators Know

Not everyone is a born communicator, but there’s nothing stopping you from becoming one! Often the key to multiplying your Communication Effectiveness Score is hidden under years of unconscious habit.

A H.O.W.T.O. Session uncovers the key, identifies your unconscious communication blockages, and frees you to become the leader you were born to be. Book your session soon!

Book Your H.O.W.T.O. Session

“In a rapidly changing market, it’s important to monitor your sales strategy and offerings so that you connect with buyers without setting dangerous precedents for later interactions.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta ~

5 Strategies to Keep Your Sales Team on Track

Adapting to new market conditions is a fundamental principle of successful entrepreneurship and the very fact of a changing market creates opportunities for growth and transition. It also creates significant challenges for existing businesses especially large corporations which are often slow to adapt.

This is where entrepreneurs and small businesses have amazing advantages. They can often move into a large and profitable gap as it opens and not only create ‘survival’ products and packages but actually set the ground for market leadership.

First, however, you need to provide your sales team with the mindset and tools to cope with the changing conditions and the (frequently brutal) rejection that accompanies it.

Here are 5 strategies that you need:

#1 Leadership & Morale

I’ve been talking to a lot of sales managers and hearing the same story: my team are shattered, they’re getting rejected at every turn and there are 3 main narratives at play:

We need it and we understand how it will provide an advantage, but we’re conserving cash and not investing in anything right now;
We need it to survive but we can’t afford/won’t pay for your solution and we want the premium product at bargain-basement prices and we’re betting that you want the sale and will do anything to get it;
We’re lucky to still be operating, go away and leave me alone.

None of these responses encourage your salespeople to genuinely try to sell your product… And it’s easy to see why!

Here’s what leaders can do:

Work on your own mindset and share struggles and victories with your team (they know you’re not invulnerable, let them see it);
Make sales calls yourself and share your results (when they see you taking action and copping flack it helps them);
Have strategy meetings to share problems, solutions, and insights (several heads really are better than one);
Demonstrate that you are actively looking for solutions from both product and sales perspectives;
Offer hope… Spring always follows winter.

#2 Client Needs Assessment

If your sales team is already using authentic sales methods based on uncovering needs, then this is an easy place to start. Shift their sales targets from dollars to information is empowering. As you know, the assumption is the mother of misunderstanding, so your goal is to find out what clients really want, need, and are willing to pay for right now.

#3 Adapting Your Offer

Surprisingly, when you start by uncovering needs as in the above strategy, you often find that the decision-maker who was adamantly rejecting any purchase at the start of your conversation is now ready to sign a contract. It was never about the inability to purchase, it was about trust, certainty, and a glut of sales calls.

However, there are also people out there who don’t want your usual product, but who will tell you about their very specific needs. That’s the information you’ll take back to your sales team and leaders to work on because the thing you never want to do is to cut the price of your premium product to meet short term goals.

All that does is devalue your premium product and make it unprofitable and unsustainable.

#4 Providing New Sales Tools & Strategies

Once you have an alternate offer, your goal is to help the sales team sell that offer effectively. Some of your team members will have been extremely successful at selling your premium offers, but now you are asking them to sell life rafts instead so it’s important to give them the mindset, questions, tools, and other resources they need to do a great job under these new conditions.

Most sales teams have one member who already has a great track record selling lower-end offerings and this is their turn to shine and help other members adjust their strategy and learn the requisites tactics. When the leadership sets an example, others follow.

#5 Accountability and Resilience

Let your team know that you understand the challenges they are facing and that you are working hard to help them succeed. At the same time, they still need to be held accountable for their activity.

Most of your team wants to keep growing, working, earning, and taking responsibility for their career and this probably won’t be the only time they face an uncertain economy and you have the opportunity to help them develop resilience and unshakeable confidence.

Confident Conversion 90 days to More Clients, More Cash, and More Impact

In this 90-day program we cover essential strategies to increase your sales performance addressing mindset along with sales strategy and tactics. In addition to a public version that we run 2-3 times a year, we also offer an in-house version that is tailored to your specific team needs.

Are You REALLY Getting Closer to the Life of Your Dreams?

Do You Even Know What You Want?

You Don’t Need to Stay Where You Are!

It’s NOT (Just) About Gratitude!

What About You?

It’s Not What You Know, It’s What You Do!

The Positive Power of Ideas

The Persistent Power of Implementation

Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact

The Root Cause of Your Discontent

The Resourcefulness Within You

Changing Direction and Creating Momentum

Getting Unstuck

What Do Hunters and Farmers Have to Do With Sales Anyway?

What Difference Does it Make to my Business?

Do You Know Whether Your Sales Team is Made up of Hunters or Farmers?

Knowledge is Power

In-House Sales Training & Assessment

What are Metaphors in NLP?

How Metaphors Inspire and Support Change

Taking Willpower out of the Transformation Equation

Building or Choosing Metaphors

Are You a Candidate for NLP Mastery Academy?

Do You Believe That a Solution Exists Even if You Can’t See One?

You Cannot Solve a Problem with the Level of Thinking that Created It

Finding Effective Solutions

NLP Mastery Academy

The Danger of Agreeable People

Influence AND Independence

How is This Possible?

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

But I Don’t Like Arguing...

If you’ve ever thought “It’s all too much!” You’re right.

What’s the solution to overwhelm?

Empowering Yourself… Understanding Others

3 Empowering Questions

NLP Mastery Course

What Is A Leader’s Role in a Sales Team?

Effective Leaders Create High Performing Teams

Empowered Multi-Level Communication

Flexibility and Growth

Secrets Great Communicators Know

5 Strategies to Keep Your Sales Team on Track

#1 Leadership & Morale

#2 Client Needs Assessment

#3 Adapting Your Offer

#4 Providing New Sales Tools & Strategies

#5 Accountability and Resilience

Confident Conversion 90 days to More Clients, More Cash, and More Impact

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